Silhouette
by MisfitKitten
Summary: They say if your heart loses its resolve, your Persona will revert back into a Shadow. The Shadow Operatives have been sitting on quite a few feelings they haven't expressed. Will the Investigation Team be able to step in and help them face themselves before it's too late? (Post-Ultimax.) Cross-posted to AO3.
1. Flicker

Welcome to my massive P3/P4 crossover universe!

This is going to be a gritty, emotional roller coaster of a ride.

The relationships are mainly going to be Mitsuru/Akihiko and Naoto/Kanji, but there will be other 'ships explored and tried out.

This particular 'fic is going to address the popular topic: what if the P3 cast had to face their Shadows? It's going to be dark, and there's a lot of headcanons regarding Persona 3; apologies in advance if something doesn't suit you.

Thanks for reading!

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* * *

June 6th, 2012. A seemingly ordinary day by any means. The temperature in Iwatodai was beginning to get too warm for Mitsuru's liking, but not so warm that she would postpone a day with her best friend.

Yukari had been adamant that Mitsuru spend more time with her after the abduction and sham of a "tournament" Sho Minazuki had constructed. It had been a struggle, but the heiress had rearranged her meetings and found this one day where their schedules converged. Though she did not care for shopping, she would grin and bear it for Yukari's sake.

Why then, was Yukari's mind currently anywhere but here?

Was she angry that Mitsuru had brought Aigis? The robot had uncharacteristically insisted on seeing her former roommate today, as if the date had some sort of significance to her. Her burgeoning humanity had caused her to express feelings like wistfulness and nostalgia. After assuring Mitsuru that yes, Akihiko was on track with his remaining college courses, she accompanied her with what Mitsuru would swear was anxiety.

Not that Yukari would have noticed.

"I must say, I am certainly not looking forward to another press conference," Mitsuru was saying as they wandered down the sidewalk, skirting through the crowds of people who surely had better things to do than to gawk at them. Wasn't this what women their age generally did? "I've already spread myself too thin as it is, what with overseeing the additions to Gekkoukan on top of personally selecting new security."

"Yeah..." Yukari mumbled, staring off into space before an uncomfortable-looking mannequin wearing garish clothing.

Mitsuru watched her a moment before continuing on. "Also, I've agreed to film an orientation video, of all things. The board assures me it will 'give the impression that I care'. Wouldn't it be simpler to just _**care**_ in the first place?"

"That's great, Senpai."

Now Mitsuru was positive Yukari wasn't actually listening. "Not to mention that, at approximately 4 pm this afternoon, I will be dancing naked atop Mount Fuji." That was sure to get a reaction!

"Mmm-hmm."

"Were you even listening to anything I've said?"

"Oh, yeah, sure! You just go ahead and dance naked-**wait,**_** WHAT?!**_"

"Yukari," Mitsuru stepped in front of her so she'd be forced to listen, "I've taken great pains to be here with you today. The least you can do is attend mentally."

"I'm sorry, Senpai," Yukari sighed, "It's just...I didn't think it would still be so hard after all these years."

"Yukari-san," Aigis spoke for the first time since they set off.

"I know, Aigis. I appreciate it, really."

Why were they both acting like this? "Is there something about today that I am unaware of?"

Yukari looked shocked at first before settling on bitter resignation. "I guess you wouldn't remember."

"Today is the sixth of June," Aigis added.

"And?"

"It's," Yukari struggled to hold back tears, "...it's Makoto's birthday."

_Oh._ What was the right response here? Mitsuru may have seen Yuki's birth date in his files, but she hadn't committed it to memory. Admitting that felt incredibly harsh. She'd dated the boy, and yet had no idea when his birthday was.

On the other hand...would reassuring Yukari that she had remembered set off red flags? She still hadn't found time to address that particular elephant. Yuki was such a sore subject that even talking about events he was present for left them all emotional. After Yukari's reaction to Aigis, Mitsuru was actually terrified to admit that the first thing they'd shared as friends was a boyfriend. But it wasn't her fault! Yuki never said anything about Yukari or any of the other girls when he kept asking Mitsuru out. She hadn't been thinking of anyone else at the time. She was still reeling from the loss of her father and the new responsibilities she had been carrying around. Yuki had been a welcome distraction, and falling for him had been a wonderful new experience.

But had she really cared for Yuki, or was she attempting to control her future in an act of defiance? If it hadn't been for Yuki's interference, she'd more than likely be married to a man she had no desire for whatsoever. She'd always be grateful to him for that. When she finally worked up the courage to tell him she liked him, he responded happily...but he never replied in kind. The thought hit her square in the face like a sucker punch from Akihiko. **He never told Mitsuru that he loved her. ** How many other girls had he kissed, held, taken out for hamburgers and ramen, stood silently in front of as they confessed to him?

When Yukari broke down in tears at the thought of never seeing Yuki again, so distraught that she was willing to negate all the sacrifices they'd made just to see the man she loved once more, it wasn't jealousy that Mitsuru felt. It was guilt. Why had she never noticed that Yukari had felt this way? Why hadn't Yuki known, or **cared**, that Yukari felt this way when he was kissing Mitsuru? Did she tell him that she loved him, as well? Did Yamagishi? Fushimi? Aigis? Who, if anyone, did Yuki himself love?

All Mitsuru could feel at this moment was anger. Here was her best friend, so broken up about the death of her beloved that it still hurt years later, with no idea that she was merely another in his line of conquests!

"I'm sorry, Yukari," she said, because it was the only safe response. _I'm so sorry for everything._ "You didn't have to agree to come today."

"I thought it would help. He'd...he'd want me to get out and enjoy life, you know? Not hole up in my apartment and break the world record for most ice cream eaten in one sitting. I mean, it's been three years – I must be nuts, still moping over a dead guy."

Mitsuru couldn't help but wonder just how many other girls they knew were doing the same.

It was then that they realized they'd ended up on the same street corner where they'd been propositioned just last month. Mitsuru had been in no mood to deal with slimy men then, and she was in even less of a mood for them now. Evidently, there was a bar close by, because several cologne-soaked, loudly-dressed playboys were stationed by the crosswalks in the hope of cajoling some unsuspecting shopper.

"Heeeey, what have we here?" one man drawled.

Yukari blanched. "Ugh, not today! Senpai, let's just go. I'm not doing this again."

Mitsuru was about to agree with her until Aigis' alarms started going off.

"**Please remain no less than two feet away from Mitsuru-san and Yukari-san for your own personal safety.**" she blared, aiming her arm cannons.

"Oh, Aigis..." Yukari facepalmed.

"And you said that _**I**_ overreacted!" Mitsuru couldn't help but retort.

It did work, however, and the lounge lizards retreated back to the rock they'd been living under. This left the two humans with very little enthusiasm for shopping, so they returned to where Kikuno was waiting with a limo.

"That ice cream is looking really good right about now," quipped Yukari. "Why do we even keep trying to shop here?"

"Aigis," Mitsuru didn't want to reprimand, but she simply couldn't sanction overkill. "Please refrain from threatening to shoot civilians in future. Public Safety is already keeping tabs on my activity as it is. We don't need to send up flares alerting them to my location."

"Understood."

"We **did** blow up a building, Senpai," Yukari pointed out.

"Well, it was my building, and I was tired of it," replied Mitsuru. She sighed. Tsukuda's terrified face remained in front of her every time she closed her eyes. _Are you happy now, __Grand-p__è__re? __ I've killed a man – I'm truly a Kirijo._ "If only I hadn't fired Father's legal representatives as well."

The cleansing of the Kirijo Group was not going as well as she'd hoped it would. Everyone from the executives down to the janitors knew enough trade secrets to take Mitsuru down once and for all. The moment they left, her competitors would snatch them up and air her dirty laundry to anyone willing to listen. It was a PR nightmare – and Akihiko would not be there to soothe her fears.

Yukari seemed to realize she'd taken it too far, so she tried to make amends. "I guess today wasn't such a good idea. Let's get something deliciously unhealthy to eat instead, huh? My treat."

Mitsuru's ringing phone answered for her. "Ah, Shirogane."

"Naoto-kun calls you now?" Yukari sounded a touch envious.

"She's been very helpful in predicting Public Safety's moves before they make them." Mitsuru didn't seem to pick up on the implications. "I really should call her back." For once, the chill in the air was not coming from her. Yukari more than likely didn't want to be alone today, and Aigis' earlier behavior now had a valid explanation. Her friends needed her.

Her family needed her. Support for the Kirijo Group was waning, and stocks were plummeting. They had to act fast before Public Safety made Mitsuru the laughing stock of the business world. Shirogane had promised not to call unless she had something crucial to report, and her sources could turn sour at any second. If they didn't stop Public Safety, it might be the last time Yukari got to ride in a limousine with her best friend.

There was an idea! "Why don't you keep the limo?"

"Senpai?"

"I might not be able to go with you, but you can still indulge yourselves. In fact, why don't you abduct Yamagishi from school? I'm sure she must be feeling a little blue herself today." It was a horrible choice of words, and she regretted them the moment they came out of her mouth, but it was more than likely true. Yamagishi had dated Yuki as well.

"That might be fun...poor Fuuka never gets out these days."

The limo arrived at the Kirijo Group offices, and Mitsuru got out feeling slightly less guiltier than she had before. She didn't notice Yukari looking wistfully out the window after her as they pulled away.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Port Island police station, Akihiko was having flashbacks of his own. In all the years he'd known Mitsuru, he'd never seen her so insanely angry. Oh, she'd been angry – occasionally at him – but never with the same homicidal fury she'd displayed that day at the warehouse. It was as if she'd been possessed by someone else. One of the more gut-wrenching parts of his police training had been about killing someone in the line of duty, and what it might do to a person. A few of the P.I. Officers had been forced to take down a criminal, and the man Akihiko spoke with had the most haunted look in his eyes. Taking a life changed him. How often would Mitsuru look down at her hands and remember how she killed Tsukuda with them? Would her mind fracture along with each Plume of Dusk every time she summoned her Persona and saw the ice again?

A thump broke Akihiko from his dreading as Kurosawa dropped a huge stack of files in front of him. Damn, he was supposed to be working his way back into the cops' good graces. "Oh, for me?" he quipped.

"This is everything we have on Kirijo vs. Public Safety," Kurosawa explained. "They wanna throw a book at her bigger than this, if you can believe it. Infiltrating an elite branch of the government, bribing a detective-"

"Yeah, as if Naoto is the type to take bribes!"

"-destruction of property, endangerment, civilian casualties, murder, attempted murder-"

This caught Akihiko's attention. "Attempted?"

"We searched the remains of that warehouse with a fine-toothed comb, and found one pretty charred stiff...but there was no sign of Tsukuda."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WAS NO-" The lights blinked for a second, and Akihiko struggled to control his temper. "That's impossible. He had to be there, Kurosawa. She _**literally**_ executed him. Trust me when I tell you, you don't just shake off an execution and walk away!"

"I'd like to believe you, but from what you've told me, there were two men in that building, and we've got one guy. This Tsukuda is either alive, escaped but died somewhere else, or is made of concrete and rebar."

It was too early in the morning for bullshit. Tsukuda escaped? He somehow got out of a building with an icicle through his heart?

"Minazuki."

"Beg your pardon?"

"We were all at the damn warehouse – none of us were watching Minazuki!" Akihiko realized. "He'd been doing the kidnappings for Tsukuda in exchange for drugs. He could have pulled him out of the wreckage."

Kurosawa remained skeptical. "Inaba Municipal hasn't seen anyone matching either Tsukuda's or Minazuki's description. Where would you take a dying man if not to the hospital?"

"He's got a place out in the woods. We've seen him in there." Akihiko's head was spinning. If by some twist of fate, Tsukuda was alive...then Mitsuru wasn't a murderer! There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the bastard deserved it, but the world already thought the Kirijo Group got away with murder. They would **not** be sympathetic towards Mitsuru. But if he lived, he could be prosecuted. It would clear Mitsuru of all the charges and take Minazuki off their hands as well!

He owed it to her to see this through.

"You know, I'd like to go more than a few weeks without being called out to Inaba," Kurosawa sighed.

Akihiko shook his head. "You and me both."

* * *

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Short chapter to start with, but Part 2 has arrived!

I was looking up birthdays when I found that MC3 (as well as the other protagonists) doesn't have a standard birthday. I guess it's so you can put yourself in his shoes? Anyway, since his Japanese and English VAs birthdays are in November and March respectively, I decided to just pick a random date to make Mitsuru wonder if now is the time to bring up the old harem.

It seemed a bit out of character to have Mitsuru be a (pardon the pun) cold-blooded killer, so sorry, Akihiko - some bullshit is in the works. The whole idea of "who has the right to take a life/who 'deserves' to die" briefly touched on in Shadowborne will return here.


	2. Flint

"I mean, I just don't understand it!"

Fuuka had always been grateful to have friends, actual friends who cared about her and put a stop to all the bullying she'd suffered throughout her school years. Today, however...

"Okay, I understand it, but I don't _**get**_ it. She's supposed to be my best friend!" Yukari had taken one moment to greet Fuuka as she and Aigis pulled the smaller girl into a limo, and then immediately launched into a tirade about the limo's absent owner. "Maybe she didn't know what today was, but she could have said she knew what today was anyway!"

Fuuka knew what today was. She'd spent every June 6th in a cloud of depression until she remembered why. Little things would remind her; someone on the monorail with headphones, crab bread being sold, making a satisfactory rice ball. She hoped that wherever he was now, Makoto was proud of her.

These past few weeks had been especially difficult. A scholarship opportunity had fallen through, so Fuuka had hoped her parents would continue to pay for her education. The robotics professor had nothing but praise for her understanding of electronics and "theories" of how one could make a fully-functional android...but in the end, went with an older student capable of speaking in front of large crowds. Fuuka still struggled with that. When she approached the subject with her parents, she was saddened to see that they saw this as a sign that she should become a doctor after all. So now she was forced to spend extra time taking work study courses, vainly working toward a goal that kept moving away from her.

A little voice inside her head kept insisting, _Why not ask Mitsuru-senpai? She'll help!_

_Oh, I don't want to burden her. She's always so busy._

_It's for education – she loves that! _

_I feel bad asking her for money_ – _and_ _it's a LOT of money!_

_She pays for Akihiko-senpai's college._

_Akihiko-senpai doesn't have parents._

Fuuka winced. She couldn't even speak poorly of someone in her own mind. Akihiko had been dealt a poor hand in life. He was lucky to have Mitsuru. At least she had parents who...loved her?

"Don't you think so, Fuuka?" Oh, Yukari was asking her something.

"Huh?"

"Weren't you listening?" As Yukari griped, Aigis gave her a funny look. What was that about?

"I'm sorry, Yukari-chan. I..." Fuuka really wanted to tell the girls what was bothering her, but Yukari seemed to be in a bad mood, and Aigis, for all her progress toward humanity, still missed the mark on things like sympathy and empathy. She didn't want to bring everyone down. "I'm just a little tired."

Aigis was determined to try to be friendly, anyway. "How is your schooling going?"

"It's going well, thank you. I'm really enjoying this semester." That was what she no doubt wanted to hear.

"Well, at least _someone's_ life is going right!" Yukari still wasn't pleased. "I don't know how you do it, Fuuka. I mean, **your** best friend is halfway across the country, and she still talks to you!"

Would that she could tell Yukari that Natsuki hadn't replied to any of her messages in weeks. The last Fuuka had heard, she met a guy who wasn't "all phony and junk", and he occupied most of her time. She at least sent a generic "yay 4 U!1!" text when Fuuka told her about the scholarship. She couldn't even afford to go to college, so complaining to her would probably be in poor taste.

"I'm sure Mitsuru-senpai still cares about you. She did leave you this limousine, after all." What was she going to do when there was no bright side to find? "People deal with grief in different ways, remember."

_Some people whine about keys like a five-year-old. _

Where did this devil on her shoulder suddenly appear from?

Yukari managed to stop bitching about Mitsuru for the rest of their outing – but she switched to reminiscing about Makoto instead, and that tugged at Fuuka's heart more than she cared to admit. He had been her first love, too, but she couldn't possibly tell Yukari that. It settled in her stomach along with the rest of her feelings, making it difficult to digest her ice cream.

_Just swallow it down. _

_Just like always._

* * *

Why did progress always start with taking two steps back?

The entire Gekkoukan school district was undergoing renovations before, during, and after lessons. The high school was relatively new (and Ken knew why), but Gekkou Middle had been around even before Mitsuru and Akihiko attended. It was agreed that they needed all new technology – or at least new second-hand technology Gekkou High was no longer using. Unfortunately, this meant little hiccups like class being held in the cafeteria, portable units with no air conditioning, and database errors that gave some students library fines and ejected others from the system altogether. Couldn't they wait until break to do this?

Ken had been eating lunch on the roof all that week to avoid the construction and the students complaining. With so many construction workers and computer techs, the school was even more overcrowded than usual. He had hoped to see some of his friends – Fuuka worked with Kirijo computers when she had time. Mitsuru herself had stopped in to oversee the progress, but she hadn't said anything, just briefly acknowledged him with a smile. He probably shouldn't have expected anything more. Akihiko had told him that there were benefits **and** downsides to being friends with Mitsuru Kirijo. It was hardly a secret that Ken knew the heiress, and rumors were the backbone of any good middle school. He'd already had to explain to several classmates that he had no idea what was going on with the renovations.

He'd barely finished his bento when some abrasive second- and third-years came tramping up the stairs, not bothering to hide their displeasure. "How are we supposed to study when it's so noisy?" one whined.

"Well, at least you didn't have to explain to your parents that you haven't checked out eighty books!" another was saying. "I'd never even _**heard**_ of some of them! And they said I might not even graduate unless I can pay them all off!"

A girl that Ken had really been hoping to avoid this week had joined them. "The breeze is nice up here, I wonder why everyone else is sweating bullets in the caf-oh, look, it's...Kenpai!" Ugh. Such a childish nickname. How was that respectful? Ken may have been a little on the diminutive side, but he was still a third-year and a Student Council member to boot.

"I didn't think someone like you would be breaking rules, Amada-san," the oldest boy addressed him.

"There are still roughly fifteen minutes left in the lunch period," Ken answered, probably predictably, but he didn't really care.

"Yeah, but with all of this work going on, it'll take at least that long to get back to class."

"Why are they even doing this now, anyway?" Library-Fines griped, "Who cares if Gekkou High is getting new computers – our computers worked just fine!"

"The Kirijo Group built it – of course they'd get new stuff!" Studious replied. Oh, here we go.

"**I** heard they built that school to cover up a bunch of dead bodies!"

"Does that mean it's haunted?"

"You're all being ridiculous." Ken had to butt in. Sure, they were circling around the actual truth, but...well, it was a lot more complicated than that. More complicated than Ken had time to explain.

"Kenpai," _Cringe... _"is it true that someone _**died**_ at that school?"

"I have to get to class!" He didn't want to try to explain that. That wound might never heal.

Library-Fines gasped. "What if they're putting in new computers to cover up a dead body _**here**_?"

Ken spun around. "You have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Could be," his classmate said, "Have you seen the news lately? People that worked for the Kirijo Group are turning up dead, and a Kirijo warehouse burned down."

"That whole family is awful!"

"**SHUT UP!**"

The outburst was so uncharacteristic of Ken that everyone was indeed silent, their mouths hanging open in shock – including Ken himself for a moment, as he tried to regain control of his emotions. He tried to channel his best Mitsuru. She was always so cool and controlled when delivering a smackdown that you had no idea how torn up she really was inside.

"Listen to yourselves. You're all such immature rumormongers that you'd gladly slander the reputation of someone who's never done a thing to you. You think your lives are hard? If you knew _**anything**_ about how Mitsuru-san grew up, you'd get down on your knees and thank whoever's up there that it wasn't you!" His face was beginning to heat up. "Now I suggest you all stop spreading nonsense and get back to your classes – the ones that Mitsuru-san was gracious enough to keep funding for you, because **she** believes you deserve an education – even though _**you**_ believe she's a murderer!"

As he whirled around to leave, the snotty girl couldn't resist one last quip. "What's with you? You act like she's your MOM or something!"

Summoning a Persona without an Evoker or supernatural assistance like the Dark Hour or TV World was incredibly difficult. But Nemesis had always been rather unstable, and evolving into Kala-Nemi didn't help. A trigger was definitely pulled. If Ken didn't get away from innocent bystanders soon...

The door to the roof slammed with enough force to shake the building.

* * *

Koromaru was tired. He was a very good boy, and unlike other dogs, he had a serious job. He was keeping the town safe from Shadows alongside his good friend Ken. But he was getting older, and making sure everything smelled safe took a lot of energy. He would have to take another nap after patrol.

Just as Koromaru was settling into a comfy spot by the television (it was warm after someone used it), the door handle clicked. _Ken? _When there was no soccer practice, Ken came straight home to feed Koromaru. But it was too early for Ken! _Breakfast...a walk...little nap...patrol...wait for mailman...snacks from the nice housewives...protect the shrine for Master...a little nap...Ken. _

The door opened with a sigh. It **was** Ken! _Ken, Ken! You're early!_

"Hey...Koro." Ken didn't sound very happy. Ken was always happy to see Koromaru when he got home. But this was early. What was Ken doing home early? He cocked his head slightly, waiting patiently to be asked onto the couch. Koromaru really wasn't supposed to be on the couch – the other humans didn't like him there very much – but Ken would let him hop up there when he got home.

"I did something stupid, Koromaru," Ken said sadly.

Koromaru yawned, making an "Oh?" sound.

"I shouldn't have let those kids get to me, but...they don't know what they're talking about! They're just repeating what they've heard their parents saying about Mitsuru-san."

_Mitsuru?_ Koromaru's ears twitched at a familiar name. Mitsuru was SEES' master. She usually smelled of tea. Sometimes she had a strong, leather smell. He had no idea why they said she wore a "catsuit". It didn't smell like a cat at all. She was always cold, so she got herself a coat like Koromaru's. That was a good idea. His fur always kept him nice and warm. Mitsuru was a very smart human.

"But I let them get to me, and I almost-" Ken was very upset. Koromaru decided not to wait before jumping on the couch next to him. "I almost summoned my Persona," mumbled Ken as he shakily began petting the dog's soft fur.

Koromaru was only a small dog on the outside, but inside he felt big. Strong. Fierce. When he needed to fight Shadows he called upon the Great Dog, and it appeared. Humans had a special word for the power they could summon, their own versions of the Great Dog. Calling on it usually made them tired. No wonder Ken sounded tired.

"None of those kids have any idea what it's like, growing up _**different**_. The worst thing they've ever had to worry about is being grounded! I got so angry that I could barely control myself. I had to tell the nurse I wasn't feeling well so I could leave school." His voice cracked. "Is this what..._**he**_ felt like?"

_He? He is...Shinjiro._ Koromaru remembered delicious food and strange smells. Lots of coughing. Shinjiro was always sad like this. Aigis said that Shinjiro was afraid; his Great Dog was always angry and it made him even more tired than everyone else's did. But Shinjiro didn't realize that he was a good boy. Koromaru tried to tell him, but he couldn't understand.

Koromaru climbed onto Ken's lap and pressed his nose into his face, wagging. _You are a good boy, Ken. _

"Thanks, boy," said Ken, "I'll be all right."

It was time for everybody to take a nice, long nap.

* * *

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Sorry these chapters are so short, things are chaotic here, and I just want to keep updates going with something.

I really didn't intend for Fuuka's section to be the shortest, but it made my point for me, in a way. She'd probably say it was all right - other people had a lot more to complain about than she did. Fuuka strikes me as that person that puts others before herself and downplays her own troubles so as not to be a bother.

Writing for Koromaru was different because he's very intelligent, but he's still a dog. Being good is very important when you're a dog.


	3. Flame

"Man, I'm sick of Inaba!"

It had been quite a while since Yosuke could admit that he felt that way. The Crown Prince of Disappointment still occasionally carried the sins of Junes on his back...but he now carried Susano-o in his heart as well. He no longer wished for excitement because the past year had given him more than he could handle. Now that it was all over, however...

An angry customer marched over to him, the fourth one today. "Yes, ma'am. Aisle five," he replied before she could even finish snarling at him. He knew what she was after by the look on her face: roach killer. It seemed like a bunch of them had started taking over Inaba. Yosuke had killed at least 10 just today as soon as he came into work.

Several other customers, noticing that this woman had gotten the attention of a clerk, came over to harass Yosuke while he was pinned down.

"Where do you keep your pest control products?"

"Aisle fi-" Yosuke attempted to repeat.

A balding man cut him off. "THERE'S NOTHING THERE!"

"My house is filled with roaches!"

"The damn things breed faster than I can kill 'em!"

"I know, I know! We have them here, too!"

"Aha! So you admit the roaches came from Junes!" This got the crowd foaming at the mouth.

"I bought some of your shoddy products, and a roach came out of the Junes bag!"

"How dare you?! You attract a bunch of insects into our town, and then you don't even have the decency to supply the poison to kill them?"

"We never had bugs in Inaba until _**Junes **_came along and disturbed the ground around here!"

And now they were back to singing Yosuke's least favorite song, "Junes is the Devil". No matter what happened in this town, it was always a department store chain's fault. Junes...you know who shopped at Junes? Adachi! The murderer! Yeah! And that Kubo kid! I'll bet the stupid Junes jingle drove him insane! Junes made it rain! Junes made it STOP raining! Junes caused a tsunami, killed my grandmother, and made my face break out! **It never ended**.

"Well," Yosuke snapped, "if they're Junes-brand roaches, then maybe they'll just up and die for no reason and then explode!" He was going to pay for that later, but right now, it stunned the angry mob long enough for him to escape to the break room. Why was everything Junes' fault? Why was everything **his** fault? They had roaches at home, too! Yosuke was the only worker constantly reminding everyone to clean up their snacks and pick up trash they found in the aisles. He always cleaned up after himself. He wasn't Patient Zero! When he caught the bastard that started this infestation...

"WAAAAHH! Yosukeeee!" Teddie waddled into the break room, the top half of his costume on backwards. A trail of used napkins followed him. "It's panda-monium out there! Everyone is beary angry!"

"Well, this might surprise you, Teddie, but most people don't like roaches crawling all over them. Hold still!" Yosuke had to pry Teddie's head off and found that a wad of chewing gum was stuck to it. "What the hell have you been doing?"

"All the boys and girls in the food court threw trash at me!" Teddie's sparkles fizzled out. "They said they saw a bug on my bear-utiful fur!" He pouted. "I'm going back into the TV World, where there are no roachies!"

"No roaches, huh?" It sounded like a dream to Yosuke, but he didn't have the luxury of escaping reality as easily as Teddie did.

No one had gone into the TV World since Yu left. With no Midnight Channel, P-1 Tournament, or sleepwalking Shadows, they didn't see the need to. More importantly, they were once again without a leader, and no one wanted to step on Yu's toes. They were fairly disorganized without him, and any talk of the Investigation Team usually led to arguing over who had the most right to step in. It wasn't like the Shadow Operatives with their ranks and structure. Yosuke sort of considered himself "second-in-command", but he wasn't good at strategizing. That was more Naoto's area of expertise...but Naoto wasn't any good at rallying people because she was used to going it alone. It made them look really pathetic because every time something came up, they had to call their leader/senpai like kids who were left home alone. _Yu says it's my turn to use the golf club! _

Today, Naoto wasn't even in school. She'd been doing something for Mitsuru that was so top-secret, she couldn't even tell Kanji. Whenever she was in Inaba, she was tight-lipped. Kanji or Rise had to practically bribe her to come to Junes, and when she did show, it was never for very long. _Apologies – I must return to my office._ It reminded them of the standoffish way she acted when they first met her more than a year ago – which wasn't good. Naoto was definitely the one Yosuke figured would regress first when the team dissolved. She didn't know how to keep relationships going.

Poor unlucky Kanji.

It was obvious as hell, even to Yosuke, that the boy had it bad for Naoto. He stuck to her like Velcro and would fall all over himself agreeing with her no matter what she said. She kept his temper in check. He even withstood the teasing without threatening to punch somebody...until she left, and he started pining like a puppy when their kid goes to school. When Rise was in town – God, could they keep the team all in one place for more than a week? – she mentioned that Kanji would just stare out the window in class until he fell asleep. He snapped at you if you bothered him. Without Naoto, Kanji had also backslid into his last year's self.

Not that Yosuke could talk. _Jeez, Naoto's a ghost, Kanji's a dick, Teddie's going back into the TV...and I'm Captain __Ressentiment.__ We're pretty pathetic without you, Partner. _

"Hey Ted?" Teddie's unnaturally blue eyes were as wide as saucers as Yosuke sighed. "Stay over here, man."

"Really?"

"It's not all that bad, is it? I mean, sure, we got roaches, but you've got friends, too. Nanako-chan's crazy about you."

"Nana-chan...I hope she's okay without Sensei at home."

"There you go – you promised Yu that you'd keep a wiggly cartoon eye on her every now and then."

"I know, but..."

Yosuke was going to regret lighting this fuse as well. "No girls over there, either."

The sparkles returned in full force. Yeah, this was going to be bad. "Yosuke! You're right for once!" _Oh, thanks, asshole! I give you a pep talk, and you step on me. _"Back off, buggies! **I'm going to score!**" He marched proudly out of the break room as if he wasn't going to crash and burn horribly.

"Teddie, your head-HEY, Casanova, you forgot your-!" But Teddie was nowhere to be found. "It actually happened...he forgot his head because it wasn't attached to his body," Yosuke muttered to himself.

* * *

Inaba's weather patterns were so capricious that many people liked to joke that the town had mood swings. Today was a beautiful day, however, and most of the people waiting on the bus were happily chatting about going to the beach, spending the day shopping in the city, or just having a picnic by the river. Only one pensive passenger remained silent.

Naoto had stood some distance away from the crowd as she waited to board. She could not afford to fill her head with memories of spending time with friends on a day like today. Duty called. Her friends were sure to understand.

Mitsuru had fully recovered from her physical traumas and was determined to beat Public Safety at their own game, with Naoto as her trump card. Both women had been calling in favors to get access to confidential files that could give them the upper hand. Public Safety was suspiciously slow to act with regards to Naoto's defection, meaning she still had some security clearance and could be seen at investigations without calling too much attention to herself. Luckily, she was far enough ahead in her schoolwork that she could afford to miss a few days in order to work.

As Naoto arrived at the wreckage of what used to be a Kirijo warehouse, she spotted a familiar face. "Dojima-san!"

"Shirogane?" Dojima did not look pleased at all to see her. Naoto steeled herself for a lecture on missing school or a rant about her showing off, but neither came. Instead, a look of concern flashed over his face. "You sure it's safe for you to be here?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Everyone knows you work for Kirijo now," he replied, slapping his coat pocket for cigarettes he had just realized weren't there.

"I am working **with** Mitsuru-san of my own accord," Naoto corrected, "Public Safety has been playing both sides against the middle in an attempt to either control or eliminate forces they can't understand. I can't, in all good conscience, agree to be complicit in what is unmistakably a set-up."

Dojima merely shook his head. "I don't understand it, either, but it landed right in my backyard, so I can't ignore it anymore." He motioned for her to duck into an alley with him, away from any other officers or eavesdroppers. "Something tore through this building like a tornado and set it on fire. Am I correct in assuming it was Kirijo and her friends with their...'powers' ?" When Naoto nodded, the color drained out of his face. "How the hell am I going to spin this to the higher-ups?!"

"The buildings in this area are rather old," Naoto began, "they aren't up to code, and were previously scheduled to be condemned. In addition, they were housing some unstable chemicals in an unsafe, unapproved manner."

"Slam a few doors, drop a cigarette, and the place lights up like a Christmas tree," Dojima finished. "Might be able to pull it off, but it's gonna be tricky. Witnesses saw the 'Shadow Operatives' and all you kids pouring out of the place before it came down. What went on in there?"

"An argument got out of hand. Dr. Tsukuda had been using the building as a makeshift laboratory. We confronted him and he confessed to his crimes while implicating Minazuki as the kidnapper."

"You're going to have a helluva time getting that to stick. Where's that kid?"

"We don't know. Senpai says he hasn't returned to Tokyo, and Labrys-san is patrolling Iwatodai with Kurosawa-san's blessing." It really did look bad for their side. Their only credible witnesses were a handful of grade-schoolers. "His residence has remained abandoned for several weeks."

"_'Residence'._ Like that wasn't just some storage shed with lights in it." Left without a vice, Dojima had begun taking his badge out of his pocket and fumbling with it. "How could he live like that? Couldn't this mad doctor put him up or something?"

"Minazuki was never interested in human interaction," Naoto explained. "People were just tools to be used and disposed of after they'd served their purpose. He refused to form bonds. This is the reason we initially believed him to be the murderer. The disgraced Ergo scientists failed to reactivate his Persona, so they had to be eliminated."

"But in reality, Tsukuda was bumping them off to frame Kirijo once he realized she was onto him."

"More or less."

"This would have been a good thing to **get a recording of**." Dojima said pointedly, looking down at Naoto.

It hadn't even occurred to any of them to get audio or video evidence. Perhaps if Mitsuru hadn't shown up at the last minute..."My apologies. Our priorities were finding the missing children and eliminating the Shadows." Dojima looked as if he wanted to say something to that, so Naoto quickly added, " 'Hostiles', if you will. Mitsuru-san was supposed to be convalescing in her hotel room. She wasn't part of the plan."

Neither was Tsukuda's murder. Once again, Naoto found herself wondering just how Mitsuru was going to cope with causing the death of a fellow human being. She seemed to be completely back to her normal self, as far as Naoto could tell. Was she really so well-trained, so controlled that she could tamp down any emotions she was having in public? Naoto may have bound her breasts, but Mitsuru had bound every aspect of her personality outside of cold, efficient heiress. Who exactly _**was**_ Mitsuru Kirijo?

As they emerged from the alley, an officer spotted them and waved them over – or rather, waved Dojima over, giving him a sheet of paper and Naoto a dismissive glare. She was never going to validate herself in their eyes, was she?

Dojima read the paper and gave Naoto a strange look. "How many people did you say you found inside the building?"

"There were two men – Tsukuda and another man I believe he called...Yamamoto," recalled Naoto, "Akihiko-san may have temporarily stunned him. I don't recall seeing him as we fled. Has he been apprehended?"

"No...he's been identified." Dojima handed her the paper. "By his dental records. He was the one they found in the basement."

_One? _"There must have been a mistake. We ran into Yamamoto on the way down. It was Tsukuda we found in the basement. Perhaps he has no dental records available because he was effectively removed from existence-"

"Shirogane," Dojima was looking at her as if she was still a child trying to infiltrate the station, "there was only one body."

_Wait, WHAT?_ Naoto was so stunned she couldn't restrain herself from blurting out, "That's not possible!" They all watched in horror as Tsukuda was condemned to a very painful and, more importantly, **guaranteed** death. The murder weapon would have melted away in the heat, but the gaping chest wound would remain!

Dojima appeared to not want to pursue this line of questioning further, but forced himself to continue. "Did you actually see him die?"

"With all due respect, Dojima-san, the man was pierced through the chest with an icicle at least 6 inches in diameter." It was like something out of a movie or video game. If Naoto herself hadn't witnessed it, she'd never believe it actually happened in reality. "His body temperature dropped to well below freezing. It would have been impossible for him to recover enough to escape a burning building, never mind moving an unconscious man into his position beforehand!" Surely Dojima would realize that Naoto was not prone to flights of fancy, that her eyes did not deceive her. But there was the coronary report. The body found was of a man significantly younger, one who died of asphyxiation, not hypothermia and blood loss. Somehow, Tsukuda had escaped the lab.

Wait.

Why was he giving her this after acknowledging that she was an informant? The subject of your investigation isn't supposed to be privy to the results of your investigation!

"You do realize that I am going to inform Mitsuru-san about this."

"I'd be surprised if you didn't." What was this tone Dojima was affecting? "You're a good cop, Shirogane...but you're a good kid, too. So is my nephew. If you've thrown in with Kirijo – at the risk of pissing off two different police departments - there's got to be a damn good reason."

Naoto fought to keep the blush painting her face from spreading.

"If this guy is somehow alive, then he's got to be pretty pissed at Kirijo for trying to kill him, " Dojima continued. "She'd better be aware of this."

The blush was replaced by a sly grin. "If I didn't know any better, Dojima-san, I'd say you were concerned for her."

"I'm concerned for my sister's kid, and his friends who have been better parents to my daughter than I was this past year." Dojima may have pushed being a father aside, but it was still within him. "Also...those kids had some horror stories. If what you said was true, and Kirijo went through that herself...what kind of monster gets off on stabbing a child?"

"Someone who has apparently skirted death," Naoto was missing something. Naoto HATED missing something. She prided herself on noticing what the outdated, patriarchal law enforcement failed to pick up on. How did a man with hypothermia and a sucking chest wound escape a burning building? "I should call Mitsuru-san at once. She's not going to be pleased. This was a chapter of her life she assumed had finally ended."

"So much for rich people not having any problems, huh? God, I need a cigarette." Dojima found himself with nothing to focus on except the idea that he should initiate small talk. "Uh...how you doing? School going all right?"

"As well as can be expected."

"Keeping Tatsumi out of trouble?"

There was that blush again! "I-I am certain that Kanji-kun is capable of behaving himself without my influence." Her fingers found their way to the small necklace she kept hidden under her collar, its inexplicably pierced bullet a cool reminder that she had forged an unbreakable bond. The tailor had patched up the holes in her life she hadn't even realized she had. He was so much calmer now, less liable to jump to conclusions. He credited Naoto for giving him that, but she knew that he'd always had the capability to be a strong, rational man. For the first time in years, the both of them actually looked forward to going to school each morning.

She wondered what he was doing right now.

* * *

"Gah! Dammit!"

Well, this day sucked.

Kanji sat alone in his classroom – thank freakin' God! – while everyone else made themselves scarce during lunch. In spite of his improved attendance record and cleaned-up appearance, he still managed to give off that "don't start shit with me" look. When the bell rang for lunch, everyone waited until he'd made up his mind about what he was doing before they moved. If he put his feet up on the desk in front of him, they took their lunch somewhere else. He tried not to care, but this meant he only had Naoto and Rise to talk to.

Neither of whom were here.

He threw down his rice that he'd made in the vain hope that he'd have someone to share it with and picked up his knitting that he wasn't supposed to have. He had to admit that it was a bit easier with his glasses. But his mind was too prone to wandering, and it kept taking his fingers with it. What was Naoto up to now? Why did she keep missing school even though she kept insisting he go? (Okay, his grades were shit and hers weren't, but still!) Did she really think she couldn't tell him at least something about what she was doing? He wasn't no snitch!

As lunch ended and kids started filing (hesitantly) back into the classroom, Kanji finally saw somebody he knew; Naoki Konishi. Funny how he didn't notice the little string bean earlier. He must've been sitting in the back of the class.

"Um...good afternoon, Kanji-san." Kid had been through hell last year, but he was the only one brave enough to talk to Kanji. Yu must've been responsible for that.

"Hey, man. You skip lunch or somethin'?"

Naoki shook his head. "I'm part of the Health Association again this year." He still seemed a little hesitant, especially when he caught a glimpse of Kanji's knitting needles, but continued. "I notice Naoto-san isn't in school again." Unlike some of the bastards at school who deliberately used the wrong honorific just to piss them both off, Naoki opted for gender-neutral formality. He was also one of the few people who never accused either of them of being gay.

"Yeah," Kanji sighed. Then he realized Naoki was still staring at him. "Oh, she ain't sick or nothin'!" he quickly added. Was he worried? "She's workin'. I'm not...uh, 'privately'-no that's not it...'privileged'...ah, dammit! I don't know what it's about 'cause she can't tell anybody, but yeah." He wasn't sure which one of them was less comfortable participating in this conversation

"Well, um...if you need any help taking notes for her, just let me know."

"Thanks, man!" It was unusual for anyone to be friendly towards Kanji, but Naoki was all right. As kids, they only really talked to each other when Yukiko wanted to play house and realized someone had to play the baby. Poor Naoki was the tiniest, so he always got stuck with that role. After middle school, however, all three children got more involved with their family businesses, and grew apart. Weird to think that a murder would bring people back together.

Naoki looked like he wanted to say more, but Ms. Sofue came in with her ridiculous headdress and started bitching at the class about cleaning up after themselves since the school had roaches. Psh, yeah, who didn't? Kanji just tuned her out and wondered what Naoto was doing. She probably skipped lunch to work on her case again. Talk about string beans – if he didn't shove something in her face, she'd probably go without eating for days! You'd think with all that money Mitsuru had, she could afford to buy her lunch.

Kanji didn't like lying to Naoki, but what he knew about Naoto's case probably sounded batshit crazy. Mitsuru had her looking for dead people so the cops wouldn't tell everyone that they all had Personas. (At least, that's what Kanji got out of it) None of them would be able to live in Inaba if that happened. People around here didn't like anyone who was "different". He wondered if Naoki'd even bother talking with him if he thought Kanji was some kind of freak.

Still, Kanji wasn't worried about himself. He was a punk, he could take it. Naoto on the other hand already had half the town looking down at her for one reason or another. She didn't need to be gossiped about any more than she already was. He had to threaten at least six kids today. Naoto had always appreciated his help (even though she didn't like his methods), but lately she'd been miles away. He understood that she was busy with her job, but...this was Kanji. Yosuke teased them both for a reason: they were close, so close that their Personas evolved together! What was this silent treatment for?

Feeling ignored, Kanji jammed his hands into the pockets of his jacket, completely forgetting that he had knitting needles in there. "OW!"

* * *

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In the Persona 4 Golden epilogue, which takes place after Ultimax, it really looks as if the necklace Naoto is wearing is the one that Kanji wore before he changed his image.

Teddie has a bad habit of attracting roaches. In Persona Q, he leaves Topsicle sticks in his costume long enough to cause them to swarm. Also, in the main game, the boys' Christmas celebration has to be moved to Yu's room because there are roaches all over the Hanamura's house (this might not be his fault, but he doesn't seem that down about it).

The first time you see Naoki, he's bailing on the health club because you're in it.


	4. Snuffed

Sorry for the long wait.

There's a kind of subtle clue here for the endgame if you squint.

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* * *

Akihiko probably shouldn't have been on this case, and both he and Kurosawa knew it. He was too close to the suspect. He WAS a suspect! Yet he'd gladly send his own ass to jail if it would ease some of the pressure on Mitsuru.

Kurosawa said nothing, knowing that it was a lost cause. They made yet another trip to Inaba with its stick-in-the-mud police force and then Akihiko excused himself to see if he could find Naoto. Another Persona-user with access to case files would come in handy. Asking the ape at the front desk was out of the question, so he just wandered through town. Junes seemed like the obvious place to find anyone you were looking for, and before he realized it, Akihiko had arrived at its front doors. He couldn't say he was surprised to see Mitsuru getting a migraine and an oblivious Aigis standing there.

Mitsuru looked tired. She usually did a pretty good job of hiding how stressed she was from most people, but it was starting to take its toll. Not for the first time did Akihiko wish he knew anything about business so he could take some of her workload off her shoulders. But Mitsuru always took everything on by herself. The few times she'd spoken with him this past week, she seemed distant and preoccupied. Hopefully Kikuno was making sure she ate and slept.

Akihiko showed off his stellar conversational skills again. "Hey."

Aigis was having a robot day. "Akihiko-san. We, too, have arrived in Inaba."

In lieu of something vulgar like _no shit_, Mitsuru removed her hand from her face and played dumb with the air of a children's TV host. "Why, so we have! Did you know that, Akihiko?" There was a vein visibly throbbing on the side of her head. That must've been a long car ride.

It was still funny. "Imagine that!"

"But Mitsuru-san, it is nearly 4 pm. You are going to be late for your appointment at Mount Fuji."

Mitsuru looked confused for a moment, and then understanding made its way across her face...followed by exasperation. "Aigis," she said slowly, as if speaking to a child, "why don't you go and make sure someone hasn't hijacked my underwear again?"

Aigis failed to pick up on this. "Understood!" She marched off happily.

"The hell?" Akihiko blurted out.

"**Don't. Ask.**" Mitsuru replied through clenched teeth. She had a death grip on her phone as she stabbed it with a fingernail. "Where on Earth is Shirogane?"

"Well, she's not at the precinct, I was just there." A horrible thought occurred to Akihiko. If Mitsuru had been talking to Naoto, and she was sleep-deprived and in a sour mood... "So, uh, I guess you've probably heard-" He didn't get very far before the sound of a helicopter drowned him out.

_Goddammit, can't they just take a car?_

Mitsuru squinted as if her eyes hurt. _Should I start a sigh count for today? _Then – predictably – she sighed. She'd been sighing more these past few months than she'd ever had since he'd met her. Was it weird that he noticed? "I told her to take the car. Inaba already considers me a grandstanding eccentric as it is." She met Akihiko's eyes directly for the first time that day. "What were you about to say earlier-"

The helicopter circled back around, because it wasn't nearly annoying enough the first time. It looked like Kikuno couldn't find a place to land and just decided to airdrop Operatives on their heads. They descended with Yukari and Junpei yelling at each other in typical fashion and Labrys supporting a dizzy-looking, green Fuuka.

"I don't know why I even told you in the first place," Yukari was saying, "You probably don't even remember your _**own**_ birthday!"

"Course I do! It's..." _Seriously, Junpei? _"It's...not important right now, Yuka-tan, we're on a mission!" Junpei struck his ridiculous pose again. "Fear not, Mitsuru-senpai, the Shadow Operatives' lethal weapon came prepared to kick ass, _**unlike some other people I won't name!**_ Ahem! So...what are we doin'?"

"Shirogane has contacted me regarding new information about last month's incident." Mitsuru put on her business voice, and everyone snapped to attention.

"Is it Sho-kun?" Labrys was quick to ask. "I've been lookin' everywhere for him! He ain't been back to his house in weeks..."

_There she goes again!_ Where does a robot get off hassling Akihiko for always thinking about Mitsuru when **she** keeps thinking about a psychopathic punk ass guy? Minazuki didn't give a shit for Labrys or any of them! What was the deal with Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons fixating on someone? Aigis and Makoto, that he could sort of understand, but Minazuki didn't have Death cohabiting his body...

...did he?

The conversation had continued without him, and everyone began heading to the elevators (though Fuuka paled at the words "food court" for some reason). Akihiko would have been the last to leave if not for an unusually contemplative teen staring at the ground instead of the dog trying to get his attention.

"Hey, Ken, didn't see you there!" Ken's head snapped up at Akihiko's words, and the guilty, haunted look on his face made him look even older than he already did. "You all right?"

"Oh...Sanada-san. I, uh...yeah, sure."

Koromaru was herding them forward, so they hurried to catch up to the rest of the Operatives. He may not have been able to speak, but the looks he kept giving Akihiko let him know that something was up with their youngest member.

_Well, if it's girls, I sure as hell can't help you. _Mitsuru occupied a good 80% of his brain, yet she had no idea because she'd been asleep when he finally told her. They hadn't spent any time together since then, so he couldn't try to let her know how he felt. He didn't even know how **she** felt, come to think of it. She'd been happy to have him around when she was out of it, but once she was back on her own two feet again, she walked away from him. Should he even bother?

The elevator was just big enough to stuff everyone in, and Akihiko ended up near Mitsuru for the entirety of the ride. He watched her eye his chest before turning away with flushed cheeks, and could not stop himself from grinning. As soon as they got this Tsukuda shit over with, he was going to tell her.

* * *

She really didn't need this today.

Akihiko had shown up so unexpectedly that Mitsuru hadn't even had the chance to message him. She supposed it made sense; if he was working with Kurosawa once again, then chances were he had the same information that Shirogane was supposed to be supplying her with. One look at his eyes told her it wasn't going to be good news. But he hadn't been able to tell her, either, because Kikuno enjoyed dramatic entrances. She'd neglected to care that Mitsuru needed time to prepare herself before addressing her Operatives. Appearing to speak extemporaneously was a carefully crafted act.

What was making matters worse was that she was currently jammed into an elevator dangerously close to Akihiko, and it was making her mind go fuzzy. How long had it been since they'd been close enough to touch? Thankfully, he was wearing a shirt...but he'd rolled up the sleeves. His hair was tousled, as if he'd been running his hands through it in frustration. He had to tell her something upsetting, and he'd do anything to avoid it.

Mitsuru just hoped she could tear her eyes away from his chest long enough to pay attention to whatever it was he had to say.

Several Investigation Team members were waiting for them in the Junes food court, but Shirogane wasn't one of them. She had apparently been detained for quite some time, judging by Tatsumi's angry posture. Quiet, quirky Amagi and gregarious Satonaka sat opposite him with several of those grins Iori usually wore when he was terrorizing Yukari – which meant they were likely ribbing him about Shirogane. How this young man came from such a kind but cunning mother, she'd never know. Narukami had returned to Tokyo, and Kujikawa was no doubt working, so that left...

"They're here!" a voice cried out, "Yuka-chan, Fuu-chan, Labby-chan, Akky and MITCHAAAN!"

Teddie came barreling across the food court as fast as his stubby little legs could carry him. But he wasn't looking where he was going, and he tripped over a soda can, taking flight like an untied balloon let go too early. Everything happened so fast that they could only watch in horror as he careened through the air...right towards Akihiko and Mitsuru.

_**SLAM!**_

She didn't know if she was seeing stars or Teddie's sparkles. The gum-covered, cigarette-littered ground came up to meet them as Teddie toppled them over like dominoes. Mitsuru was fortunate – Kikuno's coat saved her from serious injury – but unlucky Akihiko had landed face-first in Mitsuru's cleavage.

"SHIT!" his muffled voice came from between her breasts, "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" He picked his head up and the primal fear in his eyes was evident. "Please don't kill me!"

Mitsuru was dizzy for more than one reason. Akihiko was on top of her...and he was just as warm and muscular as she'd remembered from those tumultuous nights together. He was so afraid that she could feel him breathing, and it was not helping her in the slightest. Thank god he had worn a shirt! All she could do was stare at him and remember how attentive he had been...how safe he had made her feel. _He still smells wonderful... _Akihiko, too, looked as if he had remembered being in this position before.

"What the _**hell**_, Teddie! That is **not** how you greet people!" It sounded as if Hanamura was just a second too late to stop the Shadow as he inadvertently caused the both of them a flashback.

"Senpai, are you all right?" Yukari's voice came from her left, reminding Mitsuru that she'd been gaping like an idiot for at least three straight minutes.

She shook the memory from her head and groaned. "I've always known that you were hard-headed, Akihiko," she said, "You did not have to prove it."

Akihiko was not amused. "You think _you've_ got problems?"

"GROUP HUG!" giggled Teddie as he remained on top of Akihiko, which could not have been comfortable OR comforting.

"Why does this keep happening?" lamented Mitsuru.

"At least we're dressed this time?" Akihiko murmured to her.

Mitsuru immediately turned bright red, even older memories resurfacing. She was making quite the habit of finding herself in compromising positions with Akihiko. "A Shadow was to blame then, as well."

Teddie had unfortunately noticed her discomfort. "Are you being squished, Mitchan? Akky was lucky to have such a soft, bouncy landing!" His eyes narrowed, and he began making grabbing motions with his paws. "You should always get your airbags checked after a crash! Allow me!"

Akihiko immediately brought his arms up to shield her from Teddie's groping. "NO!" This had the unintended effect of making everyone around them laugh.

"I think Akihiko-san's taking that job for himself!" Iori quipped. Now Akihiko had gone a brilliant shade of red to match.

It wasn't unusual to suddenly be picturing that in her head, was it? As embarrassing as it was, Mitsuru had to admit that she'd wondered, during their evenings together, what it would feel like if Akihiko put his hands somewhere else.

The pile of people shifted, and...she wasn't the only one imagining it. "Akihiko?" she said quietly.

"Yeah?"

Mitsuru inhaled shakily and tried to choose her words carefully. "Tell me that's your Evoker."

The food court exploded in hysterical laughter. "OH MY GOD!" Yukari shrieked.

"DUDE!" echoed Hanamura.

"Well, you lay on a girl, it's gonna 'evoke' something!" joked Iori.

"Oh, yeah, real mature, ya little perverts!" Labrys had embraced her Student Council President persona.

"Do guys ever grow up, or do they just get bigger?" Satonaka complained, seemingly missing her gaffe. Amagi didn't, however, and she snorted like a bull before dissolving into giggles. This had the added effect of turning Satonaka red as she pulled her jacket collar over her face and swatted a delighted Hanamura.

Akihiko looked terrified as he gulped. "That's...my...Evoker?"

They both knew it wasn't the truth, but, "I choose to believe that."

"_Thank you,_" squeaked Akihiko.

From her vantage point, Mitsuru could see the elevator opening and feet coming in their direction before halting. "Are we...interrupting something?" Shirogane asked. What a sight they must look to her.

Wait. _**We? **_

Mitsuru craned her neck to find the detective and...oh, dear.

Shirogane was indeed not alone.

Dojima stood next to her, an unreadable expression on his face as he surveyed the scene. There was **no** way this was not going to end awkwardly. Once again, Mitsuru gave her silent thanks that Nanako was not with them as well.

"Good afternoon, Detective Dojima," Mitsuru desperately tried to inject some seriousness into her voice, "I understand that there's been a break in the warehouse case?"

"Uhh...y-yeah. You know what, Shirogane can tell you all about that. I...think I'm just gonna grab something from home, Nanako might have left something in the fridge..."

"Please give her my best."

"...Right." Dojima wandered off shaking his head. Well, that couldn't have gone worse. Could they ever come to Inaba without causing an incident?

Mitsuru cleared her throat. "Now that my both my coat **and** my reputation have been completely soiled, I would very much like to get off the ground before we end up on the evening news."

"Yeah, c'mon, no more goofin' around." Labrys plucked Teddie off Akihiko's back effortlessly, ignoring his plaintive whine and flailing attempts to hug her instead. Akihiko sighed gratefully and leapt to his feet, but he was at least gracious enough to offer Mitsuru a hand. They both quickly let go and tried to ignore the fact that they'd been holding hands.

The boys were still chuckling to themselves, but Mitsuru realized with a start that Tatsumi had been eerily quiet. She found him staring at Shirogane, lost in thought. The detective wore an expression that suggested an embarrassing memory between the two of **them** as well.

"Nao-chan!" Teddie's libido would not be stopped. "That is a beary serious face."

"This is a very serious matter, Teddie," Shirogane deflected him, "Public Safety has a plethora of charges to pin on both Mitsuru-san and the Shadow Operatives."

"Yeah, it's one hell of a list," Akihiko cut in, "About the only things they're missing are jaywalking and tax evasion."

"They don't still think Senpai kidnapped all those kids, do they?" asked Yukari.

"Our only evidence to the contrary has quite literally walked away," Shirogane explained, "Without Minazuki or Tsukuda-san's testimonies, we have no proof."

_And that's my fault. _ Mitsuru had always believed she was doing the right thing. After meeting Strega, she was determined that neither she nor any member of SEES would ever take another's life. Yet Tsukuda had pushed her to her limit and forced her to stop him by any means necessary. Her anger had gotten the better of her. But was she really just as bad as her grandfather? The only person Mitsuru had killed was a man who was gleefully killing others – a man who, by all accounts, was already dead. Tsukuda had admitted that he'd murdered the other scientists. He would have murdered everyone in that room if he'd had the chance. He HAD to be stopped. She was acting to save the lives of innocent children. If many lives could be saved at the cost of one...was that not the best course of action?

"So we need to find this damn kid, especially since-" Akihiko had been about to say something before the Investigation Team's phones all went off at once.

"Rise-san?" Shirogane answered hers – to the consternation of Akihiko, who seemed ready to punch something if he kept getting interrupted.

It took the teens several moments to realize that everyone was not on the same page as they ignored the Shadow Operatives in favor of texting. "Uh, guys, we didn't get anything," Iori had to point out, "Is this about your math homework, or...?"

"My apologies. Rise-san has alerted us to something on the news," Shirogane explained.

Hanamura's phone continued to chime. "Yu found it too," he added, "C'mon, I'll change all the TV sets in Electronics."

There were now too many people for one elevator, so Mitsuru hung back to try to catch Akihiko's attention. Instead, Labrys caught her. "Hey, where's Aigis at?"

"Most likely, guarding my lingerie." Before Labrys could react, Mitsuru quickly added, "**Don't ask**." Aigis was no better at cellphones than her sister was, but Mitsuru fired off a text to her, anyway. If the Amagi Inn had a television on, she more than likely had caught whatever had Kujikawa alarmed.

When they reached the electronics section, they were surprised to find a small crowd had already amassed. It seemed changing the channel wasn't necessary, as the news had cut into every station.

"We urge you to remain indoors and contact the Inaba police department immediately if you notice any suspicious persons," a reporter said. "Once again, breaking news: a convicted murderer has broken out of prison-"

"Oh, don't even tell me!" Hanamura exclaimed.

But the plea went ignored as a very familiar mugshot appeared on the screens. "Police are on the lookout for last year's serial killer – Tohru Adachi."

* * *

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Can you tell I hate the helicopter scenes in Ultimax?

Junpei's going to have the first SO birthday in 2020. I guess if he had more of a following, we'd have Junpei January or something.


	5. Incendiary

Incoming headcanon.

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* * *

Naoto could do nothing but gape along with the rest of the Persona-users. Adachi was loose? She'd heard from her senpai that they'd run into him "abiding by the rules of the game" during the tournament, but never had the opportunity to confront the murderer herself. Minazuki had freed him hoping his status as an agent of chaos would throw the Investigation Team off-track, but failed to account for his rehabilitation. When it was all over, Adachi willingly went back to prison on his own. But the tournament was over. What was his plan now?

Kanji voiced what they were all thinking. "How the hell did that asshole get out of prison AGAIN?"

"I'm assuming," Naoto replied to him, "in the exact same manner he escaped previously: Minazuki."

From behind her, Akihiko seemed irritated. "I really should have punched that kid out when I had the chance." His own encounter with Adachi had been surprisingly helpful; Teddie told them how Adachi actually cleared away the Shadows so their exhausted party could make it to Junes. He claimed the Shadows sensed a kindred spirit in him, and so he was able to move freely among them. Perhaps Akihiko regretted owing his life to such a person?

"I don't think Dojima-san is going to be very happy when he finds out about this," said Yukiko.

"Yeah, no kiddin'!" agreed Kanji.

"Wait, wouldn't the place you got arrested be the **last** place you'd go if you got out of prison?" Yukari asked. The Shadow Operatives all exhibited various degrees of skepticism.

"Maybe he just really craves Junes cabbage?" joked Yosuke.

"Nobody craves Junes _**any**_thing, Yosuke – shut up," Chie quickly admonished him.

"Regardless," Naoto cut them both off before another legendary argument could derail them, "having Adachi-san on the playing field complicates things quite a bit. He swears allegiance to no one but himself, meaning there is no way of knowing whether he'll aid us or hinder us."

"Ugh!" groaned Teddie, "Adachy-baby, Mr. Red Menace, no Sensei...what else could go wrong?"

The answer to that question came as they left Junes, only to be met by some vaguely familiar faces. "Ah! Your information was correct, Margaret!"

"Do you doubt my sources?"

"**I**? No! It was Theodore who suggested that perhaps you don't know as much about the mortal realm as you claimed."

The crowd that had been watching the news now pointed and laughed at a group of unusual people failing to realize the spectacle they were making outside of the store, their bright blue clothing standing out in contrast to their blindingly white hair. The shorter of the two women was currently selling out a taller man, who cowered before the elder woman.

"Wh-! Sister, that is a falsehood! I said nothing of the sort! I-I-I swear it!" The man sputtered.

"Good job, daruma, thanks," Junpei snarked.

"**If we could focus**," the woman in the blue peacoat said sharply, causing the other two to stop their quarreling. She looked as if she regretted being here as she added, "Greetings, associates of our guests. As you no doubt remember, I am Margaret...unfortunately flanked by my less-than-agreeable siblings, Elizabeth and Theodore."

"Delighted to make your acquaintance!" Elizabeth chirped. She elbowed Theodore in the stomach.

"Ouch! Um...I-I, too, am delighted." Theodore grimaced as he tried to bow. "Sister, that smarts!"

"I wasn't aware you were familiar with smarts," teased Elizabeth. She turned to the others. "Please forgive our dear brother for being woefully ignorant. He was under the impression that he was going to be a man named Frank upon meeting you."

This effectively stunned the Persona-users until Ken piped up. "Oh, no – he must have said he would 'be frank with us' - he's just going to cut to the chase."

"Why is Frank going to cut Chase? Oh! Has he dishonored the man's family? I wish to aid him, then!" Elizabeth seemed to be the one ignorant of the mortal realm as she misinterpreted everything that was said to her.

"We're...having two separate conversations here, aren't we?" said Akihiko.

"Elizabeth-san? Ain't you supposed to be in that Starry Night place right about now?" Labrys asked. This meant nothing to Naoto and her friends, but it struck a chord with the Shadow Operatives.

"I have time," Elizabeth said flippantly. "I'm sure I can assist my siblings and this Frank character and still return to the Sea of Souls to await Erebus before you can blink!"

"I don't really need to blink, you know," Labrys was also missing the point. "I'm a robot. I only blink because it gives people the jibblies when I don't for a while. No, seriously, ask Aigis!"

"Now she's got Labrys doing it!" groaned Yosuke.

Mitsuru decided to just circumvent the silliness and marched over to where Margaret was losing her patience. "Margaret, was it? I suppose I needn't point out to you that there are no Wild Cards in the vicinity. Is this something that will affect us all?"

"Indeed." Margaret straightened up, and Naoto couldn't help but be struck by the similarities between the two women. "We, in fact, are not here on behalf of the Velvet Room-"

"-because it's missing." Theodore finished.

"THEODORE!" Margaret snapped. Naoto felt the distinct presence of a Persona threatening to awaken.

"How do you lose a room?" wondered Yukiko.

"If I understand correctly...this 'Velvet Room' is the place where Yu-senpai, Aigis-san – and your late friend, I suspect – went in order to obtain their many Personas." Naoto had several theories. Yu had spoken at length about this mystical blue limousine he entered in his dreams and in the TV World, where Margaret and a man with a comically long nose assisted him in "fusing" Personas. He also claimed that Marie, the enigmatic emo girl who arrived in town at the same time he did, was originally from this room. Had anyone else told her this, Naoto would have immediately had them screened for illegal substance use. The appearance of Margaret – and her dragging them into a TV to retrieve a missing Marie – verified this outlandish tale. The Shadow Operatives and their team of Persona-users existing meant that there must always be one person who could wield multiple Personas in each area of supernatural disturbance – and in conjunction with that, one Velvet Room.

"Shortly after our last guest refused the services of the Velvet Room," began Margaret.

"-Sho-kun?" Labrys, as usual, reacted instinctively.

"-the Room itself became...how shall I put this?"

"I believe the kids these days are using the term 'wonky'!" Elizabeth offered.

"Wonky Velvet sounds like somethin' my old man woulda let me practice making pillows with 'cause it wasn't fit for resale," said Kanji.

"Or Rise-chan's strip club dungeon," muttered Yukiko. Naoto really hoped the others didn't hear her. The team's dungeons were a sore subject for everyone involved.

"I implore you to take this matter seriously!" said Theodore. He seemed to have very little self-esteem compared to his sisters. "We've never been cut off from Master Igor before!"

Margaret had a slightly more viable complaint. "In addition to limited support for our guests, it seems we are unable to monitor the state of your bonds – which is most worrying. The Wild Card draws its greatest strength from these bonds they've cultivated."

"Bonds" was a word that was thrown around quite a bit this past year. All of the Investigation Team members had benefited from creating new bonds or strengthening old ones, becoming a close-knit pack of friends. One god after another seemed to enjoy testing these bonds, pitting them against one another, forcing them to reevaluate their sense of justice. But they had passed these tests. They all knew how important it was to have friends and loved ones to remind you that life was worth living, however much the world made you feel otherwise. Was outside help really necessary?

Mitsuru seemed to share Naoto's sentiment. "I'm certain we'll be able to handle that on our own," she said.

"Nevertheless," Margaret continued, "we would be doing our guests a great disservice had we not warned you all."

"Warned?" Akihiko asked. If these Velvet people felt the need to approach them, did that mean they were aware of something else happening in the future? Another tournament, or worse?

"Nothing meaningless happens in the Velvet Room. Even the closing of the Room must have a reason. If we cannot assist our guests, then perhaps their journeys are coming to an end."

"Oh, _**that's**_ not ominous," Yosuke muttered. "Better get Yu on the horn."

"Aren't you a little late with that?" Yukari asked, and both Mitsuru and Fuuka turned to her worriedly. Their leader and Wild Card had passed away three years ago, and the fact that none of the Shadow Operatives talked openly about him suggested there were still some bitter feelings about his death. Their bonds seemed to be going strong without him, though, which may have been a testament to his influence. Naoto's team owed a lot to Yu for being the catalyst for their soul-searching, guiding them to face themselves. If the Velvet Room chose Wild Cards for their therapeutic acumen, they certainly chose right in Yu.

"Perhaps," said Elizabeth, "Perhaps...not." For the first time since their meeting, the normally whimsical girl looked sad. She must have been the late Makoto Yuki's assistant the way Margaret had been Yu's – and from the looks of it, something more. Yukari also seemed to miss him greatly. Well, there was Naoto's answer to a question that had been weighing on her mind ever since they met the other team. It seemed it was all too easy for everyone to fall for a Wild Card.

* * *

Akihiko was beginning to wonder if he'd ever have a chance to talk to Mitsuru, or if the rotting corpse of Tsukuda himself would just show up and interrupt them. To say he was surprised when Mitsuru pulled him aside was an understatement.

"Akihiko," Mitsuru seemed nervous, "walk with me?"

"Uh...yeah, okay." Something was up. The way things were going, it was unlikely the universe decided to cut him a break and let him finally warn Mitsuru her nightmares weren't over yet.

They walked silently for a while, until they reached the riverbank where only a few random birds would hear them. Mitsuru tried to start the conversation at least twice before deciding on something to open with. "I'd never noticed how much warmer it was in the countryside."

"Yeah, this shirt's starting to kill me." Akihiko had always been good at finding the perfect opening to strike, but the rules of boxing did not apply to conversations with Mitsuru.

"It's a nice shirt," Mitsuru said, before flinching as if he actually did strike her. Come on, they were alone! They both knew she appreciated what was under the shirt more. What, was a bird gonna report to the press? _Kirijo caught admiring orphan? _

"Speaking of shirts and lack thereof, uh...sorry about...earlier." Now he was whiffing his punches. To be fair, there wasn't an easy way to say _Sorry I faceplanted your boobs, it was the horny bear's fault._

Mitsuru smiled ruefully. "Just once, I would like our visit to Inaba to conclude without an incident." Yeah, this place was seriously bad luck for them. Why couldn't Naoto come out to Iwatodai for once? They assembled the whole damn team again, and she didn't tell them shit because of Teddie Teddie.

"Aw, where would the fun in that be?" Akihiko quipped, and managed to get one small chuckle out of Mitsuru. It would probably be the last time she got to laugh at all this week. He felt like an ass, but it would probably be better coming from him.

"Still...I broke a promise to Yukari in order to come here, because Shirogane allegedly had something important to tell me."

Ah. "That's why she was pissed?"

Mitsuru flinched again. He wasn't even aiming for her that time! "Did **you** know today was Yuki's birthday?"

"Hmm. Don't think he ever mentioned it. At least I remember my own – what the hell, Junpei?"

She didn't laugh. "I'm worried about her."

Mitsuru didn't openly declare her feelings about anyone, not even her father, or Akihiko himself. He knew that it had only taken a short time for her and Yukari to get to about the level he and Shinji were at, which was impressive. Maybe girls and their best friends were different, but when Shinji was going through shit, it killed him to watch.

"A short while after graduation," Mitsuru addressed the river rather then him, "I was straightening up the Student Council room when Chihiro Fushimi approached me – do you remember her?"

"Oh, the one who'd never seen a boy in her life before high school? I asked her where you were once, and she stared at me like I'd just summoned my Persona in front of her. I couldn't tell if she was going to wet her pants or faint – or both." He wondered where this was going. "Chie said she's president now. Can't imagine how _**that**_ speech went!"

"It went fine – I wrote it," Mitsuru replied. "However, what Fushimi wanted that day was information about Yuki. He'd apparently...meant a lot to her."

"Wait, seriously?" Scuttlebutt in the boys' locker room had Makoto dating everyone from Yukari to Fuuka to that male exchange student. There were even rumors about Makoto and Mitsuru – which had left an unsettling feeling in Akihiko's stomach every time he heard them. Maybe if he'd realized what that was about earlier, things would have been different.

Mitsuru scowled. "Evidently, it came as a surprise to Fushimi as well. She was under the impression that he was dating Yukari...or perhaps Yamagishi...Aigis...a second-year I'm not familiar with – Nishiwaki?"

"I think she was a manager," remembered Akihiko, "Little kid, super tan, something like that?"

"Yuki appears to have charmed and wooed the entire female portion of Gekkoukan High." Mitsuru said bitterly.

**Too** bitterly.

Oh, God. No, no no no. _**FUCK.**_

"You gotta be kidding me."

That punch connected dead on. He hadn't meant to say that out loud, but he did, and Mitsuru looked so fucking guilty that he wished he could take it back. So the rumors were true. He'd worried and wondered, but Mitsuru just confirmed right to his face that she was dating Makoto and a hole opened up in his chest.

Akihiko opened his mouth, but the only thing that came out was a small, "Why?"

"He asked me," she said, equally as tiny. She turned back to face him and his anger melted away when he realized she was crying. "He'd been asking me for months, but I never really had the time or inclination and I was fairly certain he was already involved – apparently he'd been _**very**_ involved. I guess his Thursdays were free, so he thought, 'why not?' " The tears turned to snowflakes before hitting the ground. "I suppose on some level, I knew he'd been with someone else, but at that point, I didn't care. I was just so alone and...there was Yuki."

"Nice to see that his being a broke orphan didn't stop you or anything." Cheap shots at this point were all he had left.

Mitsuru's aim was true and cut deep. "It never stopped him, either."

And there it was. Akihiko's failure to act had cost him Mitsuru. She was always so far above him that it literally and metaphorically stopped him cold. What could a guy like him offer her? She'd never go out with him! She'd laugh right in his face and slash his heart open in front of all their friends. He couldn't bring himself to ask her. Makoto did, and she was willing to date a broke orphan after all. And he was even MORE of an orphan, and MORE broke! What the hell did she see in that guy? He was like three feet tall, with no muscle tone whatsoever, probably couldn't even take a punch! Was she running her hands all over **his** chest-

He was going to puke if he had to picture that for one more second.

Mitsuru took advantage of his silence. "In retrospect, I suppose it was very convenient for Yuki that Father died when he did...Very convenient indeed." Okay, that was cold even for her. "Something Shirogane said to me regarding our leaders had me very suspicious. Do you remember how many people turned up for Yuki's funeral? People we didn't even know, most of them not even students?"

"Yeah, there was that monk who always hung out in the karaoke bar. I didn't think Makoto was the religious type, but...oh, and some businessman? That old couple from the bookstore? How does a guy who barely talks make so many weird friends?"

"Narukami allegedly has quite the contact list himself."

"Wait...so it's some Wild Card thing? What, are they collecting people?" All they really knew about Wild Cards were that they had tons of different Personas. Where, how, and why they got them was a mystery. But it **did** explain why Makoto was seen with so many different girls. He was getting Personas from them.

He was _**using**_ them. Did he even love them?

"Yukari doesn't know anything about this," Mitsuru continued, "and I don't want her to find out because it would destroy her. She still loves him, Akihiko. I can't tell you how often she begins talking about him without realizing it. Aigis says she refuses to even entertain the idea of dating someone. If she thought for one moment that it wasn't the same for him..."

"Maybe you should've thought about that before you dated your best friend's boyfriend?"

"THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW!" Mitsuru snapped, frost appearing around their feet. Having scared herself with her own outburst, she stumbled over to the stairs and curled up on one, looking like a lost puppy. "I should have realized you wouldn't understand. I don't know where my head has been lately."

Akihiko found himself split being comforting her and walking away before he said something he didn't mean. He chose the latter. "I'll let you find it," he said, passing by her on the stairs before she realized he was tearing up, too.

"Akihiko?" No, he could not talk to her right now. He needed to punch something while screaming profanities at it. She got herself into this mess, she was just going to have to get herself out of it. "AKIHIKO!" He was NOT going to turn back and hug her, tell her everything would be all right! There was nothing all right about this!

He made it up to the picnic area before running out of patience and driving his fists into a nearby tree. "Fucking...asshole...one-eyed little PUNK!" He was pissed at Makoto. He was pissed at Mitsuru. He was mostly pissed at himself for sitting there twiddling his thumbs when all of this was going on. Why hadn't he noticed a damn thing? How did no one **else** notice them? If Yukari was so in love with that damn blue-headed clown, why didn't she realize he was carrying on behind her back with people who lived in the same building?

His hands were starting to bleed, but he just couldn't stop. This asshole had Mitsuru, and he just dumped her for someone else when he was done with her? _**After her father had just died?! What kind of an asshole does that? **_Mitsuru was vulnerable, and he just moved in for the kill because _**he needed a Persona? **_

The tree cracked, and Akihiko finally ran out of steam. His breath came in heaving sobs. This was a disaster. He lost Mitsuru before he'd even really had her and now he was vandalizing Inaba. They'd better have a bar or something around here. If he was going to damage anything else, it might as well be himself.

* * *

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I forgot why I sent Aigis away, but then I realized that she was briefly a Wild Card, and so she needed to be gone when the Velvet Siblings arrived.

Again, it's probably a bit early for the events of Persona 5 to get rolling, but perhaps someone refusing the Velvet Room would give Yaldabaoth an opportunity? Many people have pointed out that the older Persona-users should have been aware of Shadow activity and Persona-usage in Tokyo. Yaldabaoth's first act of business, then, would be to eliminate these people. My theory is still a work-in-progress, but I'll elaborate more on it later.

When the IT goes to Gekkoukan for the class trip in Golden, they meet Chihiro and she mentions a former president helped her write the address she gives to the class. This is most likely Mitsuru. She probably wrote most of the speeches.

Here once again is my headcanon. I cannot imagine how three girls and a girlbot all living together didn't know who was dating who, but let's just assume they didn't for the sake of drama. The others have sort of said their goodbyes and moved on, chalking it up as lost love, but Yukari is still carrying a torch.


	6. Kindle

Starting to smolder...

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* * *

By the time Mitsuru came out of her self-induced stupor, it was beginning to get dark. The world was crumbling around her, but she had no desire to do anything except sink into the ground. It was over before it even began. Akihiko had abandoned her. He had taken the news exactly as she'd feared.

This shouldn't have surprised her. On paper, it sounded horrible. SHE sounded horrible. She really should have noticed that her best friend was madly in love with the same man that was luring her out of her depression. She **had** noticed her treasurer gradually coming out of her shell because of Yuki, yet she still agreed to date him! But it took two to tango, so they said. Yuki knew that both girls worked closely with one another, yet he dated both. Mitsuru and Yukari actually lived across the hall from one another, and yet he dated both of them – and Yamagishi to boot! Why was Akihiko only upset with her?

_Because you should have known better,_ a voice in her head lectured her.

Indeed, she should have. But Father had died, and Mitsuru lost the capability to care about anything else. She'd withdrawn from the juniors and their social lives, from Akihiko and his newfound resolve in the wake of Shinjiro's death. If she hadn't already completed the required coursework for graduation, she could have completely tanked her high school career. She would have gone on to marry a man who barely noticed she existed outside of his own needs. And Akihiko would have just gone on with his life, directionless, with the desire to become stronger and help others, but without the means to do so. Her husband wouldn't have stood for Mitsuru spending HIS money so a friend from school could fly around the world. The Shadow Operatives would have never gotten off the ground if Mitsuru was spending all her time having children and being a prisoner of her own home. None of them would be here today.

Mitsuru stood up finally, a newfound fire in her heart. Yuki had done many rotten things, to be sure, but his involvement with Mitsuru had given her the impetus to change her life for the better. He had given her the opportunity to in turn give Akihiko his chance to succeed. What would Akihiko have done, had he been the one to confront her fiance? Allow her the chance to tell him off herself...or punch him and receive a first class ticket to jail instead of South America? She'd have been married off that very evening.

They'd let past mistakes stunt their growth before, and it nearly tore them apart. Now was not the time to dwell on what went wrong. Yuki was dead...but they weren't. If Akihiko couldn't see that, if he insisted on being so pigheaded and valuing his wounded pride over this precious friendship, then everything SEES had accomplished would be for naught.

Mitsuru headed up the hillside determined to find Akihiko and set things straight once and for all – but fate had other plans once again. She ran into Aigis instead.

"Mitsuru-san!" Aigis was, as always, oblivious to the atmosphere she'd intruded upon. "I have returned from investigating the hijacking of your underwear."

Oh, yes...that. She'd forgotten how sarcasm-blind the robot was. Why had she been gone for so long? "That's wonderful, Aigis, but we have more pressing matters to concern ourselves with-"

"Your suspicions were correct," Aigis cut her off, "There has been an attempt to purloin your unmentionables."

**What.**

"The culprit was clearly focused on making off with one of your bras."

Mitsuru was fuming and freezing at the same time. There was only one being in Inaba whose idiocy surpassed even Iori's.

"_**TEDDIE...!**_"

* * *

Why did shit always happen to him?

Akihiko had been determined to find a drink to crawl into, but all Inaba had was a liquor store and a few freezers in Junes, which was out of the question. He didn't want to run into anyone he knew while drowning his sorrows, and sitting like a bum on a picnic bench with a paper bag would make him look even more pathetic than he felt. So would taking the bus into the city just to get plastered. Fucking tiny little one-Junes towns.

He hadn't run into Mitsuru yet. For all he knew, she was still sitting by the river, hopefully realizing how much she'd crushed him. Why was it so important that Akihiko know she'd been with Makoto? Why did she even feel the need to tell him now, after all these years, after they'd just spent the past month getting closer than friends had any right to be? Was he always going to have to settle for someone else's leftovers?

Of course, he had to run into someone, and _**of course**_, it had to be Labrys. "Hey, where ya been?"

"Where the hell **is** there to be in a place like this?" he snapped. "I thought Aigis was my babysitter."

Labrys continued to be insensitive even for a robot. "Wasn't Mitsuru-san with you?"

"No."

"Really? 'Cause-"

"What do you want, Labrys?"

"We're goin' into the TV! Teddie said he smelled somethin' fishy goin' on, and Fuuka-san says there's still Shadows in there."

Now there was an idea. Punching trees was one thing, but punching Shadows was sure to get his mind off of being unable to punch Makoto. There was no better high than fighting. "Well, why didn't you say so in the first place?" He got about two feet in the direction of Junes and stopped. "Wait, who's leading this circus?"

"Well, er…Yosuke-kun had the idea, see, but Naoto-kun said we should get some of you adults to go with us, and so **I** thought Mitsuru-san would tell everybody what to do, but then Junpei-kun said that she only really laid the rules down, and the **real** leadin' had come from-"

"Never mind! You know what? Forget about it! Let's just go!" Akihiko wasn't a handpicked-by-some-blue-idiot leader, but he knew a lot more than people gave him credit for. He could do this shit. They had all the elements covered between the 15 of them. Chie had some ice...right? Oh, wait, there was also Teddie Teddie. Great. But when they reached the Junes food court, Teddie Teddie wasn't there.

"Found Akihiko-san!" Labrys triumphantly declared.

"Hey, wasn't Senpai with you?" Junpei asked.

"No," Akihiko replied in a tone that hopefully indicated he didn't want to discuss it.

Yukari looked like she wanted to say something to that, but held her tongue. "So, what's going on?"

"Our navigators have confirmed the presence of Shadows in the TV World." Ah, good old no-nonsense Naoto. "But that isn't all." Oh? "A scouting party went on a preliminary investigation and found what we believe to be the beginnings of a Dungeon." She put so much importance on that one word that Akihiko thought he could actually hear it being capitalized.

"You keep saying that like it's important," said Ken, "What's a 'Dungeon' in this context?"

Naoto looked as if she had a huge speech at the ready (after years of Mitsuru and Ikutsuki, Akihiko knew what a speech looked like), before Chie interrupted her. "That's where a person's Shadow lives when you throw them in the TV!" she explained. "Yukiko had this big castle before we rescued her. Naoto-kun had a secret lab, and Kanji-kun had a sauna-"

"I thought **we agreed **_**never to TALK ABOUT THAT SHIT AGAIN!**_" Enough steam came out of Kanji's ears to power a sauna for a few days.

Chie just shrugged. "Hey, you invented it!"

Kanji grumbled. "Well, don't blame me if Yosuke-senpai starts dancin' around like he's gotta piss when we get there! _'Ehhhh, I don't want to catch the gay!'_"

"God, that place was awful-HEY! HOW'D YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT?! You weren't even around then! CHIE…!" Yosuke couldn't decide if he was embarrassed or pissed off. Seemed like the Investigation Team had their own inside jokes and moments.

Next to join them was Aigis, who happily reunited with her sister unit. Akihiko was prepared to defend his choice of college courses again (why the hell would he need Chemistry? They had a forensics unit at the station – he was just a beat cop!) when he remembered that Mitsuru had sent her away for something.

Sure enough, Yukari had the same idea. "Is Senpai coming?" she asked just as Labrys was asking, "You seen Teddie anywhere?"

"Yes. They are both heading this way," Aigis replied.

Wait, what?

A series of crashes were heard as the temperature in Junes suddenly dropped without warning. "Somebody **HEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLP!**" Teddie Teddie came flying across the court, tears somehow coming out of his plastic eyes and a full panic gripping him. "Mitchan, PLEASE!"

"_**DON'T YOU MITCHAN ME, SHADOW!"**_ Mitsuru was hot on the bear's heels and there was murder in her blood-red eyes. For a moment, Akihiko forgot his anger, watching in awe as she vaulted over trashcans and tore through chairs and tables as if they were snowmen. It wasn't like her to ignore the fact that she was making a scene. What the hell was going on? "_**I AM GOING TO TEAR YOU LIMB FROM LIMB!**_"

"Yoooooooosukeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I don't want to die!" Wow, Teddie Teddie was actually shitting himself. Whatever he did, it was bad.

Yosuke seemed to be the only one who knew what was going on as he kept looking from Mitsuru to Teddie Teddie with dawning fear in his eyes. "Teddie, we've talked about these panty raids, remember?"

_Are you fucking serious?_

So loaded was that question that even Junpei of all people was shocked. "Whoa...you actually DID it? I mean, people have joked about nabbing Mitsuru-senpai's underwear for years, but...that's just locker-room talk, bear! Nobody was gonna actually TAKE it!" He watched Teddie Teddie run for his life with his mouth hanging open. "I don't know whether to be impressed or terrified that I'm guilty by association!"

The IT girls had been upset about their friend until the truth came to light, and then they all did complete 180s. "The Shadow Operatives are staying in our inn..." Yukiko may have been soft-spoken, but Akihiko could feel the flames rising from where he sat as she put two and two together. "Teddie, you were trespassing in our inn? If my parents find out about this, I won't be allowed to have friends over anymore!" As Teddie Teddie ran by her, she stuck out her foot, tripping him and making him land face-first on the concrete. "HE'S DOWN! GET HIM, MITSURU-SAN! FREEZE HIS LITTLE EYELASHES OFF!" Damn, she jumped off the mood swing so fast it came back and hit them all in the face.

"Wait, whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Yosuke jumped in front of the downed bear, waving his arms. "No killing in the food court! This is supposed to be a safe place for kids and families and dirty little mascots and homicidal women with swords-LOOK HE KNOWS HE SCREWED UP, OKAY?"

Things were quickly getting out of hand, and Akihiko needed to stop this before someone got hurt. As Mitsuru ran by him, he stuck out his arm and caught her around the waist. The goosebumps rose up on his skin within seconds.

Mitsuru yelped as three things quickly became clear to her: Firstly, that she was no longer moving because there was an arm in her way. Secondly, that arm belonged to Akihiko, who was shivering, but holding his ground. Akihiko was holding her. Finally, she realized at last that everyone in the food court was staring at her, some even pointing and muttering about this grown woman attacking their overly friendly mascot character, a presumably-teenage boy who was shuddering under a table. She deflated.

"I hate Inaba,"she muttered.

With everyone too upset to act rationally, it fell to Naoto to shut down the situation. "Teddie, you do realize that you have committed a crime?" she began. "Mitsuru-san is well within her rights to press charges against you."

"I want my sensei!" Teddie Teddie whined.

"Do you understand what you've done wrong, Teddie?" It was amazing how Naoto could sound so calm and collected while interrogating. Akihiko had seen grown men smash coffee cups after dealing with stubborn perps.

Teddie Teddie sniffled. _Oh god Teddie Teddie, please say yes, I'm losing the feeling in my arm! _Finally, he nodded and slowly crept out from underneath the table.

"Then I suggest you apologize."

Oh, this was going to go swimmingly. Mitsuru barely forgave, and never, ever forgot. It had taken Akihiko years to atone for the incident that earned him his first Execution, and then Kyoto happened – and both of those were mistakes! Teddie Teddie pulled this shit deliberately!

Teddie Teddie stood up, somehow growing lips to quiver and letting his eyes get huge and doe-like. "Mitchan-er, LADY Mitchan – I'm so beary sorry I pawed your lacy little naughty clothes. I've been a beary rotten Shadow, like you said!" He wrung his hands, playing up the piteous look.

Mitsuru's eyes were closed, so he couldn't read them, but most of the tension had drained out of her body. _She isn't buying it. I don't know how much longer I can hold her, so you'd better run like you've never run before, bear. _

"Don't touch my belongings again," she finally said, walking away before Teddie could react.

Akihiko shook the hell out of his arm. "That's probably the best you're gonna get," he explained, "Don't push it any further. She'll come around if you let her breathe for a while."

"You're one lucky stupid bear, Ted," Kanji laughed as he clapped him on the back.

Teddie Teddie looked like he'd been sat on and he'd never smile again. Mitsuru put the fear of death into him permanently. He didn't even put his usual effort into schmoozing. "Hold me, Rise-chan," he said weakly.

"Nope," said Rise as the girls took off without even looking at any of the guys.

Those Shadows were gonna go out screaming in a wave of estrogen.

* * *

Labrys couldn't say she always understood humans, but she thought she'd spent enough time with the Shadow Operatives to have them all sussed out. Today, though, everyone was weird! Well, not everyone – Koro-chan was still cheerful. But he didn't get why the humans had stopped talking to one another, either.

Mitsuru and Akihiko were avoiding one another like the plague, and everyone else was busy watching them, but no one would ask either of them what was wrong. Yukari had said that if Mitsuru wanted to tell them, she would, but if you bugged her too much, you'd get frozen. Labrys really didn't want to talk to Akihiko in a mood if she didn't have to. That just left her guessing.

All the girls were mad at Teddie. Even some of the guys didn't want to be caught standing next to him. He'd finally cheesed them off to the point that they couldn't let it go. That was something else that Labrys had trouble understanding. What was the big deal about underwear? It was just clothes! Didn't Teddie work in Junes? They had underwear all over the place! If he needed underwear that badly, he could buy some!

Maybe some Shadow-hunting would cheer everyone up. Aigis had promised to help Labrys with her own Orgia Mode, so she was raring to go. It was strange not having Yu around to lead them through the TV World, but Yosuke and Naoto were doing a lot of talking, and it seemed like they had a plan.

The TV World was dark as hell as they landed. It felt...wrong. Not that a dimension where people's subconscious feelings ran wild would feel like a dream, anyway, but it felt even wronger than it normally would. When the kidnapped kids were fueling the place, each room of the dungeon had a different theme. This one? It had no theme at all, no recognizable form or shape. It was like it had no idea what it was supposed to be yet. There were tons of Shadows everywhere, but they just hung out in corners like they were waiting for the bus, only attacking when provoked. What was up with this place today?

Akihiko and Mitsuru were fierce. They punched and slashed like nobody's business, even stealing kills if somebody took too long. When one of them kicked a huge amount of ass, the other would step up their game. It got so bad that the Shadows started running away when they saw them coming.

At some point, Fuuka started picking up a kind of signal. "Everyone!" she exclaimed via telepathy, "I'm getting a strange reading from the center of that floor! It's unstable, and extremely powerful!"

"Is it the Reaper?" Mitsuru asked her. She was squinting in the direction Fuuka "pointed".

Rise and Teddie were tuning their Personas that way, too. Suddenly, they both gasped and looked at each other. "No...something even worse," said Rise.

"What the hell could be worse than a rotted cloak full of evil with two double-barreled shotguns?" asked Junpei.

"A rotten person full of evil with a shotgun and a Persona!" answered Teddie. "It's Adachy-baby!"

Everyone on the Investigation Team immediately tensed. Adachi was bad news. Adachi in the TV World was even worse news, because he used to use the place to pull off his murders. He wasn't afraid of Shadows at all – in fact, he claimed they liked him. Labrys never actually met Adachi in person, but from what she heard, he was a misogynist who did it all because he was bored. That kind of guy would be real comfortable in a place like this. But why was he here now? Yu got him to go back to prison and behave. Did Sho really break him out again? What were they doing with all these Shadows?

"That explains the suddenly hostile Shadows," Naoto concluded, "as well as the police's failure to locate Adachi. It is, once again, up to us to extract him."

"Yay." Yosuke spoke for all of them. "I don't really wanna do this without Yu here, but I guess there's enough of us to overpower him."

"He's gotta know where Sho-kun is." In spite of the apprehension coming from the humans, Labrys wanted to check this guy out. He had spoken to Sho before – not that Sho trusted anyone, really – but they had a rapport of some kind. Maybe he could help her understand him?

Behind her, Akihiko scoffed, and Labrys just knew he was rolling his eyes. He was never going to feel bad for Sho since Mitsuru almost died for him. But Mitsuru did that herself. **She** felt bad for Sho! She understood what he went through. That's why it was crucial that they find Sho and talk his ears off until he realized that. If Akihiko really loved Mitsuru, he'd get it.

But it was Naoto who stopped her. "Labrys, a word of caution. I understand you want to locate Minazuki, but this is not a safe way to do so. Adachi is deeply manipulative. He won't hesitate to use your feelings to further his own goals."

Labrys shook her head. "All's I know is I gotta do somethin'. Do you have any idea what it's like goin' around thinkin' nobody wants to be your friend?"

Naoto took a deep breath, and Labrys totally didn't expect her next words to be, "Yes." Kanji and Rise both approached, looking like they each wanted to hug her, but Naoto stepped away from them and continued. "But when your alienation is caused by your own actions, in the end, you're the one who has to take the first step towards change." Okay, something new to be added to the files on the Investigation Team: Naoto's past. Labrys had missed out on quite a bit by coming in late.

As they got closer to the middle, the Shadows stopped trying to run away from them as much and started standing their ground. This meant nothing to the two adults, who kept charging in and showboating while everyone else wondered why they were even along on this run if Mitsuru and Akihiko were going to keep plowing through everything without them. This was not normal behavior for the two, if the looks that the other Operatives were giving them was anything to go by.

Another couple was acting sketchy, too: Naoto and Kanji. Ever since Naoto's sorta-confession, Kanji had been orbiting her super-closely. Naoto didn't say anything about it, but sometimes when he wasn't looking at her, she stole a glance at him. This, at least, seemed to be normal behavior, since Rise had a big goofy grin on her face while watching them. It looked as if they liked each other, but were too afraid to say anything – a stark contrast to Mitsuru and Akihiko, who just argued with each other like their feelings were the other's fault.

Chie had been swapped in for Aigis, and after an All-Out Attack, she found Yukiko facing off with a Shadow. Then something weird happened. "Shall we?" she said.

"OK, Chie!" replied Yukiko. Both girls summoned their Personas at the same time, and in a flash of light, Chinese-style dragons appeared.

"Oh, this is what I was telling you about," Ken said to the other Operatives, "They can combine their Personas for a unique attack."

"Intriguing." Mitsuru began studying them intently, chin in hand. "And you say you have no idea what causes this?"

"We just thought we'd try it one day," Yukiko explained. "Our Personas agreed, because Chie and I are close."

If she hadn't been watching them, Labrys might not have noticed Mitsuru and Akihiko look at each other and then quickly look away.

* * *

_Close..._

Naoto knew better than to get distracted while Shadows were about, but in the back of her mind, today's events kept begging to be analyzed. Did she really see herself in Minazuki like she'd alluded to with Labrys? Surely she wasn't as violently antisocial as that! But she **had** been standoffish, especially with Kanji who had taken a liking to her from the start.

How did their Fusion Attack come about? She and Kanji hadn't known one another as long as Chie and Yukiko had, but they spent a great deal of time together over the past year, and on some level, understood one another more than the rest of the group did.

_Including Yu? _A traitorous little voice asked.

Yu was...different. He was certainly fully invested in Naoto's well-being and friendship – when alone with Naoto, that was. Evidently, he'd been fully invested in the other girls while alone with them as well. And yet he'd never developed a Fusion Attack with her or anyone else, not even Rise who was obviously devoted to him. Were they not "close"? What exactly did "close" entail? Surely Yosuke and Teddie didn't have the same kind of relationship she and Kanji had?

When did she start using the term "relationship" in conjunction with Kanji?

"Be careful!" Fuuka's voice popped in. "That power source is coming from the next room!"

"I can smell it!" said Teddie. He then began sneezing. "Pee-YEW! Don't they have showers in jails?"

"Yeah, but you don't want to spend that much time in them," Yosuke could not help but quip.

_Don't rise to the taunt, Kanji, please, you're better than that! _Naoto silently pleaded. He may not have been doing it purposely, but Yosuke had a way of putting Kanji's insecurities on manager's special.

Jeering laughter met them as they entered a large room that looked as if it were being dissolved in acid, causing the colors to run and smear together. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Brat Brigade! Took ya long enough!" Tohru Adachi lounged on a destroyed pile of rubble as if it were a chaise, lazily tearing strips of paper and letting them flutter to the ground like flower petals. "Miss me?"

"Dammit, Adachi, why are you even here?!" Yosuke demanded.

Adachi rolled over, stretching and yawning. "I dunno. Getting some air?" He looked around. "Gotta say, I like what you've done to the place. The 'gaping maw of death' look is all the rage this year. Very 'on trend'."

"Don't play coy with us!" said Chie, getting into her fighting stance. "You're the one who made this place! Now come down here and get your beating!"

"No idea what you're talking about, Meathead," Adachi snapped back. "It was like this when I got here."

Now that was strange. "Are you actually implying," Naoto asked him, "that something else has altered the TV World?"

"What part of '**It was like this when I got here**' do you not get?" Adachi was even quicker to anger than usual, switching from languid to threatening in the blink of an eye. "Aren't you supposed to be the last in a long line of snoops and snitches? You mean to tell me you haven't figured a damn thing out yet? Man, I thought you were better than that, Junior." Now Naoto had to plead with herself not to let jeers and taunts get under her skin. Adachi was clearly pretending to be withholding information from them so they would do the grunt work for him. He had no idea what was happening, either.

"Where's Sho-kun?" Labrys was not familiar with Adachi's modus operandi.

"No idea," Adachi answered.

"He's the one who got ya out of prison, right?"

"No, they let a serial killer go free because I always kept my cell clean!" His eyes flashed yellow. "Okay, I'm really disappointed in you brats. You forgot how the game worked! Why don't you come back after you know whodunnit?" He raised his hand.

"Wait, what the hell are you doing?" sputtered Yosuke.

Adachi ignored him. "Bye!" They watched as he snapped his fingers…

...and somehow they were transported to the TV World hub.

_What?!_

* * *

-ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp-

How many of you got to Magatsu Mandala, screwed up, and got sent back? Adachi is a sadistic little troll.


	7. Inferno

Everything's going up in flames.

-pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp -

* * *

Adachi had done it again.

The man was anally retentive about "rules" and the following of them to the letter. Fail to meet his standards, and the playing field resets. Naoto supposed they should have expected this. It took nearly a day in real time to get through his dungeon.

"Are you all okay?" Fuuka greeted them as they slowly began to recognize their surroundings. "I lost contact with you once you entered that room. How did you get back here?"

"Adachi, that's how," said Kanji. "Bastard gets off on playing his little games."

Labrys looked confused. "Was it somethin' I said?"

"Yeah, it usually is, Labrys!" Akihiko was unusually belligerent, pacing and snorting like a bull. Mitsuru glared at him but she, too, seemed more tense than she normally was. Evidently, even professionals such as the Shadow Operatives still succumbed to infighting.

"If Adachi-san won't let us back in until we've solved this case," Yukiko realized, "then...what are we supposed to do?"

Yosuke seemed to be at a loss, looking toward Naoto, who unfortunately found herself in the same boat. Adachi's stipulation was to "find out whodunnit", but he gave no indication as to what crime he was referring to.

"Someone is responsible for the current state of the TV World," she began. Thinking out loud usually helped her put things into perspective, and the more heads put together, the quicker they could find the solution. "Adachi claims to be clueless as to the identity of this person or persons, and also claims that he himself is innocent."

Yosuke snorted. "Yeah, and Junes is selling sports cars!"

"Ooh! I want one, Yosuke!" _Oh, Teddie._

"Minazuki isn't in here," said Rise, trying to get Teddie to focus, "I can't tell if he's even been in here at all since the tournament."

"Nope! No Red Menace in here!" agreed Teddie. Then he shivered, and quietly added, "_O__ther than__ Mitchan!_"

"We're operating under the assumption that Minazuki is responsible for Adachi's escape. However, there has been no sign of Minazuki since just after Mitsuru-san's...hospitalization." _Death. Mitsuru was clinically dead. _ Naoto didn't want to dwell on that, not with Akihiko being two steps away from punching something and Mitsuru herself standing there. They'd never gotten a chance to address her involvement and the fact that Naoto nearly prevented Mitsuru from being revived because of a silly thing like logic. "Minazuki being responsible for the state of the TV World is therefore unlikely." Labrys brightened at this.

"Good call."

How someone managed to sneak up on the 17 of them, Naoto would never know. Perhaps it was because it was Yu, still taking a knee from his leap into the TV World.

"SENNNNNSEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" Teddie ran towards Yu and bowled him over in his enthusiasm.

Rise looked to join him. "Oh, Senpai! Senpai's here!"

"Man, can you ever not make a dramatic entrance?" Yosuke teased, but he was smiling.

"Sorry," came Yu's muffled voice.

"C'mon, Ted, you're gonna flatten the guy." Kanji peeled Teddie off of Yu, barely containing his own joy at seeing their leader return. "Senpai," he grunted, acknowledging Yu with a nod.

"We didn't know you were coming, Yu-kun," said Yukiko. She had moved closer to Yu as well, but between Rise and Teddie, there wasn't any room for her to get his attention. "How did you know we would be here?"

Yu held up his phone, which was of course inoperable in the TV World. "No one responded to my texts," he explained. "Either everyone's parents canceled their service at the exact same time, or you were all somewhere phones didn't work." Yes, that was Yu. Always intuitive. "Where's Adachi?"

"Camping out, having a good old time in his life-size game of Sorry!, shoving people back to Start," Yosuke replied, "Claims he has no idea how the TV World got this way, but it still works the way he wants it to."

Yu shook his head. "He knows more than he's letting on. Adachi only pretends to be stupid." Naoto had assumed that Adachi was pretending to be **smart**, but perhaps he was actually adept at projecting whatever image of him people wanted to see. An invaluable tool for a serial killer.

"We think Sho-kun broke 'em out," said Labrys. The Shadow Operatives collectively cringed.

Yu actually chuckled at this. "If at first you don't succeed...do the exact same thing again. Maybe it'll work this time."

"Widely acknowledged as the textbook definition of insanity," added Mitsuru-san. She was not smiling. "We don't have time to psychoanalyze one another, however. If Adachi has caused an influx of Shadows, then he needs to be eliminated. Narukami, I assume you have a strategy?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but that's the strategy exactly. You need to deal a better hand than Adachi and make him play his trump card before he's ready."

Mitsuru scowled. "I am not in the mood to stroke little boys' egos."

Was she still talking about Adachi?

"We're at an impasse for now." Naoto had been training her tin ear to better read moods, and several people desperately needed space and/or a cup of coffee. "Let's put our heads together tomorrow after some rest – and school." The Investigation Team groaned.

Yu moved dangerously close to Naoto and spoke so only she could hear. "Pretty good, but you lost them at the end with the school. Next time, mention Junes. They like being bribed with junk food." He seemed to approve of her leadership skills. This did **not** get her heart beating quickly. Not in the slightest. Nope.

Yukiko and Rise quickly caught up to them, giving Naoto a much-needed escape. She busied herself with carefully getting out of the TV and managed to avoid anyone's eyes until a crash startled them as they left Junes.

Akihiko had punched a street sign. The combination of Labrys' single-mindedness and Adachi cutting their exploration short had frustrated him, and he continued to burn off excess energy by slugging benches, fences, anything within reach. He was giving off so much static electricity that it was practically visible. If someone didn't stop him...

Mitsuru may have been the only human both brave enough and strong enough to grab Akihiko by the arm and shove him backwards. There was no sign of the affection she had for him in her eyes as she slapped him across the face – only a bone-chilling disapproval. But it was what happened next that shocked everyone.

Akihiko smirked. He seemed completely unaffected by Mitsuru's slap. In fact, it seemed to energize him. Cracking his knuckles, he charged at Mitsuru with his fists raised. Fuuka shrieked, and Yukari's cry of "Senpai, no!" went unheard.

Mitsuru raised her sword.

"Are they gonna fight?" asked Kanji.

It appeared that they were. Both Akihiko and Mitsuru had been tense and violent that evening, and sitting down to talk seemed to be out of the question. They chose to communicate through sparring. Everyone else had to move out of the way because the couple didn't register anyone else but each other as they collided over and over again.

Why couldn't they have taken care of this in the TV World? Inaba was **not** going to appreciate the disturbance or the destruction.

Ice and lightning covered the street as Personas entered the fight. Naoto had fought both Operatives in the tournament, but the intensity and power they displayed tonight was maddening. It was as if they fought to _**kill**_. The fact that Mitsuru was a woman did nothing to dissuade Akihiko from aiming directly at her solar plexus. She was tossed across the street like a rag doll.

Akihiko was on her in an instant, though he hovered as they all watched her face. When anger decorated it instead of pain, he pounced. "Yield?" he said for the first time since resurfacing into reality.

"NEVER!" cried Mitsuru as she leapt to her feet. She launched herself at him fearlessly.

**This pleased Akihiko greatly as he parried her sword with his fists. He quickly lost the upper hand ****as Mitsuru lobbed ice shards at him, forcing him to dance maddeningly to avoid them. A few hit, and Akihiko left himself open for a kick to the chest. ****Now the stiletto heel was on the other foot. **

Mitsuru had her sword aimed at his throat, her eyes wild and her hair going every which way. "Yield?" she asked him this time.

"Not a chance, lady!" Akihiko growled.

By now, the street was starting to look as if an earthquake had hit. The noise had surely attracted a few civilians as lights went on all over Inaba. Neither Mitsuru nor Akihiko cared as they got even more intense, vocalizing now.

Just then, Akihiko fell hard. It looked as if the fight was finally over. Mitsuru summoned her Persona, and...she healed Akihiko. He popped up like a jack-in-the-box and the fight raged on.

"What is even happening right now?" Yukari muttered, stunned.

"Our senpai are finally having it out, Yuka-tan," Junpei replied, "They're either gonna kill each other, or start making out right in the middle of the street."

Junpei may have been on to something as the vocalizations got louder and more guttural, with combat becoming increasingly less Persona-based and much more physical. Mitsuru swung wide, and Akihiko ducked behind her and caught her in a choke hold. "Got ya."

For a moment, neither moved. They just stared at each other for what seemed like hours, panting and heaving, eyes wide, faces flushed, Mitsuru's hair drenched in sweat.

"Should...should we be watching this?" asked Ken.

A siren pierced through the awkward silence and the moment passed.

"Well, now they've done it," said Kanji. He looked uncomfortable; if the police found him at the scene of an altercation, they would surely drag him in regardless of whether he was involved or not.

"The cops are coming!" Labrys and Aigis moved to separate the two now that the lightning storm had dissipated. "We gotta scram! C'mon!"

The spell had worn off. Akihiko's arms fell to his sides and he blinked as if he'd just woken up. Mitsuru stared at him for just a moment before whimpering and dashing off in a flurry of white.

"Mitsuru-san…!"

"Senpai…!"

"Let her go." Yu decided. "Keep them apart for now, let them coo-let them both calm down." A pun was not a wise decision at the moment. "We'll straighten up what we can and then talk to the cops." How they were going to explain snow and lightning in June, Naoto had no idea, but nevertheless, everyone began picking up fallen furniture while glaring daggers at Akihiko.

Akihiko, for his part, actually owned up to his actions and talked to the police with them. Kurosawa was going to get a furious report about his underling that would most likely cost Akihiko his job, but he seemed resigned to that fact. He promised to pay for the damages and reassured them that no innocent bystanders were hurt. It almost seemed as if he'd done this before. The teens left him at the station since he seemed fine, and headed back to their respective homes.

"I should probably poke my head in at Uncle's since he's no doubt heard about this. Someone's sure to tell him that I'm back in town," said Yu. The others began tapering off until only Naoto was left, with Kanji going out of his way to walk her home as usual.

"So...is Akihiko-san gonna get in a lot of trouble?" Kanji asked. He may not have cared for cops, but the white-haired man was a fellow Persona user and electricity specialist. It was generally easy to respect him.

"Ordinarily, he would be at risk of losing his badge – but as he doesn't currently _**have**_ a badge, I'd say he would be discouraged from rejoining the police force."

"But he liked his job."

"Assuming the blame will keep Mitsuru-san's reputation from taking another hit."

"So he did it for her, huh?" Kanji went quiet at this. He had been doing quite a bit of pondering lately. If only Yosuke could see him now.

"Kanji-kun," Naoto interrupted, a thought occurring to her, "I would like to commend you for your behavior, both inside and outside of the TV World."

"Huh?"

"I understand how difficult it can be for you to deal with the police, especially considering your unjust reputation." It always galled her how Kanji couldn't even walk to the store without being harassed by officers with nothing better to do. Not even wearing his glasses and washing the dye out of his hair seemed to help.

"Yeah, well, uh..." Kanji looked both flattered and embarrassed, scratching the back of his neck. "I just wanted to keep all this shit from getting back to Ma. She don't need cops knockin' on her door night and day – it stresses her out. She worries, you know? That kinda thing ain't good for her health."

"Nevertheless, you've been doing a wonderful job controlling your temper – especially around Yosuke-senpai in particular – and for that, I am proud of you."

Again, Kanji said nothing. Naoto worried she'd gone a bit too far until she heard the telltale sniffle of a nose preparing to bleed.

"Ib wa...ib wa duthing," said Kanji haltingly, with his head tipped back. Naoto suspected it helped him to avoid her gaze as well as redirect the blood. Luckily, she had begun anticipating this sort of situation and withdrew some napkins from her pocket. Regular tissues had proved to be too thin for sopping up blood, so she had invested in some cafe-style napkins that were much thicker. (She elected not to admit that the sculpted edging on the top ply had also reminded her of Kanji.)

"Danks." Kanji had finally managed to staunch his nosebleed and was blushing slightly. He wiggled his nose experimentally and then continued. "You, uh…you finish studying for that English test?"

Naoto smiled. "I believe a bit more reviewing couldn't hurt. Shall we?"

* * *

Inaba had one pale imitation of a bar, and Shiroku was it. Mitsuru found herself in a sensory deprivation tank of hazy, warbling enka music and cloudy, diluted liquor. Good, don't feel anything. Better to not feel Akihiko's arms around her, so tight he could squeeze the last breath out of her yet it wasn't tight enough. Don't feel him breathing so hard that his chest moved the way she liked it. Most especially, don't remember the scent of him. Wash it all away with perfumy booze. Drown the heady attraction. Perhaps you'll expel it from your system after a little too much and be done with it forever.

Why did she have to engage him? And in public, no less? Inaba was sure to add their names to a list of miscreants barred from entering the town any moment now. It was a disgraceful display of reckless, overly emotional, arrogant fighting for dominance that accurately painted the two of them as hot-headed fools incapable of reasoning like adults.

And it had felt wonderful.

Though she often gave Akihiko grief for it, Mitsuru was a steadfast believer in living and dying by one's sword. There was no honor in sending others to fight your battles while you cowered from the sidelines. The meek, passive life was stifling, and decisive action could not and **should** not be left solely to men. Mitsuru could not sit still, and Akihiko more than anyone understood that. But he _**infuriated**_ her by calling attention to it at the most inappropriate times! She had been angry and frustrated at the lack of progress on this mission, the lazy, dismissive villainy of Adachi, and Akihiko's infantile jealousy, and it all came to a head when he began making a scene because he'd been denied a fight like a child denied a piece of candy.

_As if you behaved any better! _ That voice had returned with its scathing truths.

She had only meant to chastise him, but he'd taken it as a challenge, and her honor would not let her yield. It wouldn't have been fair to subject anyone else to his fury. He wouldn't have wanted it that way, anyway; only Mitsuru could match his power and anger. It was Mitsuru he wanted to outdo in the TV World. It was Mitsuru that he needed to fight. And Mitsuru felt the same way, if she was being honest with herself. No one gave her the fight of her life quite the way Akihiko did.

After watching her draw random patterns in the condensation, the bar owner decided to approach Mitsuru. "Not enough to forget?" she drawled. "Want another?"

"I'm sure you don't carry enough alcohol to dilute all of my issues," Mitsuru protested, but accepted another drink.

The woman studied her for a while before adding, "Oh, he isn't worth it, child."

Unsure which part of that statement she was more offended by, Mitsuru gave her a look she hoped was scathing (her head was getting a little fuzzy). "And if I respectfully disagree?"

"Did you say 'respectfully'? And did you say it right?" The owner actually snatched up Mitsuru's drink and took a sip of it herself. "Either someone is watering down my supply, or you aren't as light as you look!" Now **that** – **that** was something to be offended by. At least she was considerate enough to replace the drink. "Then again, appearances can be deceiving. Look at me – did you ever think a simple shopkeeper could be a glamorous hostess?"

Mitsuru elected to take a big, long sip of her drink instead.

"Take it from someone who's been around the block a few times, sweetie," the 'glamorous hostess' continued, "men are no good. They use you up and then they leave you when you're no longer the apple-cheeked maiden you used to be." She looked wistful. "They say they'll give you gems, plenty of them. Even say they'll take care of your son. Then, just when you start to get used to them coming around – poof! They leave without saying goodbye!"

Mitsuru suddenly felt guilty about her unflattering opinion of the dowdy hostess. This woman had a child? One she was struggling to provide for? Nanako had mentioned how the local citizens felt Junes was slowly eroding their way of life, but to see it in practice was kind of heartbreaking. No wonder she was forced to turn her convenience store into a nightclub to make ends meet.

"And my son, he's so depressed he won't even move! Just look at him!"

Wait, what?

Mitsuru twisted herself in knots trying to find a child or teenager skulking around the club until she realized the woman was gesturing to a tank along the far wall. Something was floating around inside. It might have even looked listless, if she was feeling charitable.

_Okay, scratch that. This woman is nuts. _

"No one brings bugs to my son anymore," she was saying, "and I'm too old and fat to go crawling around in the park for them." Mitsuru was forgotten as the woman mused to herself. "I suppose I could get some of those children to collect bugs for me...oh, but then I'll have to give them something in return...ah, but it's worth it to make my poor little Akihiko happy!"

Spit-takes were not usually part of Mitsuru's repertoire. "I-I'm sorry?" Just how drunk was she?

"My son, Akihiko." So she **did** hear correctly. Mitsuru looked at the tank again, and realized something else.

_Of course it's an electric eel. _

_I'm so over this town._

"I believe I've had enough for one night – but thank you for your concern." Mitsuru pushed the glass as far away from herself as possible and tried not to make it obvious that she was using the counter to help her stand up.

"You wouldn't happen to have any gems, would you?"

"I'm afraid not. But here," Mitsuru had finally learned to carry cash around for popping into places such as this, "perhaps you can order a box of crickets on the Internet."

The woman's eyes nearly popped out of her head, and Mitsuru ignored her slipping the money into her bra as she toddled out into the sweltering air.

Mission to remove Akihiko from her mind: failed.

* * *

Yes, Dojima had indeed heard about the altercation on Inaba's one and only main street. The whole place was small enough to fit inside one of Mitsuru's bathrooms. If someone at one end of town sneezed, someone at the other end would yell "Bless you". Yu had often heard Yosuke and others lament the size of the tiny town, but having grown up in crazy, cluttered Tokyo, he found Inaba to be much easier to manage. It was cozy and filled to the brim with all of his friends and loved ones.

Something brushed against his ankle as he reached the Dojima house. The local cats had already noticed him and were lining up for their attention, no doubt alerting the entire neighborhood to his presence. Sure enough, he had barely knocked at the door when it swung open to reveal Dojima on the phone, his expression pained.

"Yes, I see him now. Don't worry, I will. He's probably fine, you know Yu, he's as resourceful as he is infuriating." Uh oh. That was more than likely his mother. Ever since his return, she'd been working overtime to be a parent and seemed to have noticed his disappearance for the first time in years. It was surprisingly smart of her to call her brother. Then again...where else would Yu be? "Yep. Yep. Oh yeah, he's grounded. Yep. I will. I **will!** Love you, too. Bye." Dojima hung up, and he reached for Yu menacingly...only to ruffle his hair with a bit more force than was necessary. "**Don't do that again."**

"I left a note," protested Yu.

"It's a good thing you're predictable. Yu, what're you doing traveling halfway across the country like that without calling or emailing? You know we wouldn't mind having you, but having your mother call me shrieking that her boy's missing – especially now-"

So he **did** know. "It wasn't planned! I saw the news, and then Yosuke stopped communicating...he'll be sick eventually; it's not _really_ a lie." Yu was sweating. He really needed Real World allies right now. "I couldn't exactly tell her about Adachi."

"He's not here, though." Dojima got really quiet, and then realization hit him. "Wait, you mean he's, uh..._**there**_?" He was still having trouble wrapping his head around the concept of a TV World, but at least he was trying. Suddenly it occurred to Yu that Dojima wasn't normally home at this hour. Nanako would often fall asleep waiting for him to return, and Yu would put her to bed and then keep supper warm as her father stumbled in much later. Yet here he was, standing guard by the door, home with Nanako and waiting for Yu.

_He's afraid._

Adachi didn't "care" about people the way others did, but he had a short list of those who he had managed to connect with whether he admitted it or not – and they were all named Dojima. If he'd escaped from prison – or was "liberated" by Minazuki – he certainly wouldn't go visit his mother. But was he foolish enough to repeat the same behavior now that his facade had been shattered?

"Yeah, the team found him. We're not sure what his game is, though. He's waiting for us to move."

"You can't go skipping school to fight monsters." Dojima was determined to parent now that he'd been tagged in. "Aren't Kirijo and her crew doing this professionally? Can't you leave it to them?"

"They're, uh...going through some things right now." Okay, maybe he hadn't heard about tonight. "Besides, Adachi is personal. He's gone after our friends and family before, and we can't let him do that again. This is our fight. Inaba's our town."

Dojima just waited until he realized his slip-up, smiling wistfully.

"I-I mean...it's the team's town."

Dojima chuckled. "We've got enough room here for one more troublemaker. Welcome home, Yu."

* * *

Akihiko knew he'd screwed up. It had been a day of disappointments from the start, with Mitsuru breaking his heart to him being unable to break Adachi's face. So he dented a street sign. Was that really the biggest crime to happen in this postage stamp of a town? Punching things was supposed to make him feel better – what went wrong?

_Your idiot temper, that's what! _

Shinji was probably right, sitting up there on his fluffy little cloud facepalming at the mess Akihiko was making of his life. No girl, no job, no dignity left. What a man. That's it, he needed that goddamn drink.

The one place that seemed to be open was a fruity bar, but booze was booze. He hid in a dark corner and took a sip every time someone's face appeared in the liquid. Shinji. Miki. Adachi. Labrys. Mitsuru.

...Makoto.

Motherfucker.

Why him? Who the hell is this guy? He pops into their lives and suddenly every girl in town's hot for him? He wasn't that good looking. He didn't have any money to speak of until they started raiding Tartarus, and even then, Mitsuru had plenty of money, and she always claimed she never cared about any of that. And he got SECOND place at the swim meet! Not even first! Okay, he did well on tests and shit – so what? It's not like Akihiko was stupid!

Well, yeah, he was stupid – stupid enough to think that Mitsuru of all people wouldn't get caught up in the hype surrounding the _Wild Card, ooh, he's so __**fascinating!**_ He can lead the whole team while poor Akihiko with his one dumbass Persona can't do anything 'cause he broke his rib **defending the neighborhood while Emo Blue Hair was sleeping!**

Oh, he liked to sleep, all right. He liked to sleep with everything that moved! If Makoto was such a great guy, then why couldn't he keep one damn girlfriend? Did they all break up with him after finding out he was awful in the sack? Guess your five billion Personas couldn't help you there!

By now, Akihiko had lost count of how many drinks he'd had. Maybe he'd have one for every Persona Makoto used to schmooze all the girls he came in contact with. There! Now he's a damn Wild...something. That thing Yu was! Yeah, that guy had lots of Personas too! And he had at least two girls drooling over him, maybe even more at school. Fucking Wild Cards not saying a damn word and getting all these girlsHECOULDN'TEVENGETONE! ONE!

One damn girl.

That was all he'd ever wanted.

Why would you ever cheat on Mitsuru? HOW could you cheat on Mitsuru? She'd find out and kill you and make Akihiko help her hide the body. And of course he'd say yes, because dumbass Aki couldn't say no to Mitsuru to save his life. Who could say no to Mitsuru? She was **amazing**. She was fierce, she was powerful, she was drop dead gorgeous- what more could you want? Okay, she didn't have an ass to speak of, but who needed an ass with the rest of her just-

He was out of booze, and familiar voices were filtering in from the front of the bar. He didn't think any of them were Mitsuru, but then again, he was so damn soused his own dead mother could've been speaking and he wouldn't have recognized her.

"There you are!" Yukari led the charge, her voice exactly what Akihiko didn't need right now as it pierced his brain. She turned up her nose at the stench of too much booze and not enough showering as she got closer. Junpei was following her, but he looked like he was going to puke before Akihiko did, looking around at the bar like it was a slaughterhouse. Fuuka was stuck to him like a barnacle.

Akihiko was in no mood to deal with whiny juniors. "What?"

"How stupid are you? I mean, really? Your little stunt has everyone in town thinking we're lunatics that destroy property wherever we go. What were you even thinking? Were you thinking at all?" Nag, nag, nag. Yukari kept bitching, but the words made less and less sense to Akihiko.

"Don't bother, Yukari," Junpei spoke up finally, "he's three sheets to the wind already." He refused to even look in Akihiko's direction, the disgust evident in his voice.

Yukari was STILL going. "You're a real jerk, you know that? First you act like some knight-in-shining-armor because you know she was missing her dad. Then you take off and leave her so depressed she can't get out of bed for a week. You finally show up and she..._**dies**_ right in front of you, but you still don't do anything!"

The booze was coming up now.

He still had nightmares of his own about that. Watching Mitsuru die had been the worst moment of his life. He'd waited too long to love her, and now she was gone forever. But he had saved her life. HE did that, while Yukari did nothing but sob. What did she do? What did Makoto do? Caesar was beating the shit out of his head, but Akihiko ignored him because getting angry was better than crying.

"And now look at you! Sitting here getting drunk while we can't find Mitsuru-senpai anywhere! Don't you even care!?"

"**OF COURSE I FUCKING CARE! I CARE MORE THAN ANYONE AND LOOK WHERE IT'S GOT ME!**" Drunk or not, Akihiko leapt up screaming because that was just the last straw. He could not **stop** caring about Mitsuru. "Who do you think was there when Mitsuru woke up screaming all night? Huh? Whose shoulder has she been crying on this whole time? Who's always comes running, no matter what she fucking wants? Who...who do you think would give his worthless fucking life for hers if it came to that?"

_Stop. Stop it._

"…Who's been trying to for the past six fucking years?"

Caesar panicked, pleaded, cried out that this would only hurt everyone, but Akihiko could not stop.

"Six. Years. Six years, I've been there bending over backwards trying to be anything Mitsuru needed. And yet, who does she turn to? Who does she finally date? You know who it was?"

_NO!_

"Oh, Yuki, you're so intriguing! _**You'd**_ never let being a poor orphan stop you! And look, our bangs are symmetrical, so we can both do _**this number!**_" He must have looked really stupid moving imaginary bangs away from **his** face while drunk, but it did the trick.

Yukari's face showed the tiniest bit of understanding. "S-Senpai...was…?"

Fuuka was quicker on the uptake and gasped as she realized what Akihiko was implying, covering her face with her hands.

Akihiko taunted her. "Which day of the week were you, Fuuka? Guess your all-powerful psychic brain couldn't pick up on Makoto knocking on every door like a damn trick-or-treater!" Fuuka began to cry at this, and Yukari was staring at her like she'd just now realized what was happening. "Wow, you really had no clue, did ya? Were you '_stupid or something'_?"

Junpei – who Akihiko had forgot was there – took both girls by their arms and pulled them away from the table while giving Akihiko the most scathing look he'd ever seen from the fire-user. In fact, he may have been trying to set him on fire with his eyes alone. "Gee, I wonder why no one wanted to date **you**," he spat, "Is that how you become a real man, Drunkihiko-san? Screaming at girls and making them cry?"

"Getting homesick, Junpei?"

_You deserve to be set aflame now._

He really thought Junpei was going to hit him. **He'd** have hit himself if the shoe was on the other foot. But Junpei's gut instinct still kept him from standing against a male authority figure, and he inadvertently redirected his anger on Ken somehow getting into the bar, Aigis hot on his heels. "Hey, you're not supposed to be here! I told you to wait outside! This is no place for kids!"

Ken was not amused. "We found Mitsuru-san," he said, scowling. "I only came to find you because you were taking so long. You can clearly see that I'm not wasting my money on alcohol to hide from my problems." He shook his head. "If this is 'maturity', then I think I'll stay a 'stupid kid' for as long as possible."

"Ken-san..."

"There ya go!" Drunkihiko found that incredibly amusing. "Don't ever grow up, kid. It's standard operating procedure to...give your balls to Mitsuru for safekeeping."

"Yeah, that explains it," retorted Junpei.

"Well, yeah – she didn't have THOSE when I met her!" He held his hands out in front of his chest – ignoring the stabbing pain in his head that could have been sake or Shinji, not that it mattered at this point.

Yukari left the bar in disgust, no doubt to go confront Mitsuru. Fuuka seemed rooted to the spot with fear and shame, so Junpei led her away. Ken took one last disappointed look at Akihiko before he, too, allowed Aigis to take him out of the bar. _T__hey don't understand shit. _Fine. He didn't feel like drinking anymore. He had to tell Mitsuru something...what was it?

She was going to get chewed out pretty damn good by Yukari, though.

His head began violently stabbing the backs of his eyeballs. _GET OUT THERE! _

As luck would have it, Akihiko came out of the bar just as Mitsuru was exiting Tatsumi Textiles for some reason. Her face was flushed, and she honestly looked as bad as he felt.

Yukari wasted no time. "Senpai!"

Mitsuru took a deep breath. "I would like to apologize for my earlier behavior," she began, "It was careless and immature of me to resort to violence in public, and I deeply regret my actions."

Of all the reactions Yukari could have had, applauding was not one they'd anticipated. "What a good speech! Your best yet! It almost seemed like you actually had real emotions there!"

"Yukari?"

"So tell me, Senpai, what kind of speech did you give Makoto when he finally came into your room?"

It took much longer for Mitsuru to catch on than she usually did (that was weird), but once it finally dawned on her, she turned to Akihiko in horror. "How dare you?"

"Whoops!" he shrugged. _Hey, she made her bed – and she let Makoto lie in it. Let's see her regret these actions!_

"Wh-what is this mutiny?"

"So you're not going to deny it?" Yukari was still angry, but there was a hint of pain creeping its way into her words. She really didn't want to believe it was true. That asshole had hurt half the team, and he wasn't even here to own up to it!

"Yukari, no! It wasn't like that! Nothing happened! I..." Wow, Mitsuru at a loss for words. That was new.

"How could you do that to me? I thought you were my best friend! You knew how I felt about him, and you just…!"

"I _didn't_ know!" Mitsuru insisted, but it went unheard.

You could have had any boy in school!" Yukari pointed at Akihiko. "You could have had **that idiot!**" Mitsuru looked away rather than meet Akihiko's eyes. "Did you think you deserved him more than I did? Huh? Because you're some high-and-mighty Kirijo who gets whatever she wants?"

"You have no idea how wrong you are."

Again, Yukari seemed to ignore any protests. "When is your family going to stop ruining my life?"

"**You owe your very existence to Kirijo!**" Mitsuru snapped. Her eyes bugged out of her head as the words hit Yukari, who had finally stopped complaining. Apparently, she hadn't meant to say that, but she enjoyed the effect it had just the same. A cold front moved in as Mitsuru finally got angry. "I suppose you think you know everything there is to know about my family and yours, don't you? Shall I tell you how wrong you are? Are you sure you want to become my enemy now, Yukari?" Now Yukari was the one cowering. "You have no idea how easily I could break you. I could shatter you like glass with just a fraction of what I know of the _illustrious, saintly_ Eiichiro Takeba." Oh, shit. Mitsuru played the dad card, and Mitsuru always played to win. "Become my enemy, and I will show you no mercy. You would be wise to remember that."

"Do you really think you can hurt me any more than you already have?" Yukari sniffled.

"Yukari-chan..." Fuuka tried to console her.

"Oh no you DON'T, you sneaky little mouse!" Mitsuru reached out and tried to grab Fuuka by the arm, getting her braid instead. "If I fall, I'm taking all of you with me!" Fuuka sobbed and shook, but Mitsuru wasn't letting up. "Admit it! You were involved with Yuki as well!"

"Because he ASKED me to go out with him!" Fuuka had finally found her voice. "Just like he asked you, and Yukari-chan, and Aigis! I didn't know there was anyone else!" It was frightening, seeing real anger from the tiny, teal-haired girl. "I'd never been asked out by a boy before. No one ever notices m-me like that! I'm n-not popular like Yukari-chan...I'm not b-beautiful like you...I can't even make a rice ball!" She was crying, but she clenched her fists in a vain attempt to control her emotions. "I thought he l-loved me! Why would M-Makoto-k-kun do something like that?

"You were all stupid enough to let him," slurred Akihiko, "Ooh, Wild Card, so unique, never says a damn word but somehow builds a whole damn harem!"

"Oh, like you couldn't have one of your own!" Junpei? What the fuck? "Just 'cause you suck at dating girls doesn't mean everybody has to. Dude's the only guy in school who managed to bag Senpai AND Yukari – and Mr. Big Man on Campus is just home with his right hand." His face got incredibly punchable. "Hey, at least I admitted to being jealous of Makoto when he was alive! What kind of coward waits 'til he's dead, huh? Why don't you ask Mitsuru-senpai if you can have your balls back for the weekend?"

"**GEE, I'M GLAD WE'RE ALL ADULTS HERE!**" Ken snapped.

Everyone began yelling at him instead. "Oh, shut up, Ken!"

"Who the hell's 'we'?"

"What's _your_ problem, Ken?"

"Oh, you are the most insufferable little monster I've ever had the misfortune to meet!"

Koromaru started barking at the noise.

Ken had a very mature reaction to the onslaught. "Shouldn't have killed my mom, then!"

"OH, HERE WE GO!" Akihiko really didn't want to be reminded of that again. "Every five minutes: 'You killed my mommy! I want revenge!' Yeah, and you got it – Shinji's dead because of you! You happy?"

Tensions were running so high that no one seemed to notice the clouds in the night sky had turned a suspicious shade of green. Caesar was vainly trying to get Akihiko's attention, but his voice was breaking up like a scrambled TV signal.

_Must...su-...can't...-anger...is too late-_

_...too late…_

Something was weird. Something was wrong.

Marie ran as fast as she could through downtown Inaba, her messenger bag whacking her side as it swung haphazardly. She had just been getting off of work when the air turned menacing and she began to feel sick to her stomach. There was something threatening her town, and Kusumi-no-Okami had vowed to protect Inaba for as long as she lived.

Finally, that Junes place appeared in her sights. Where was that warm-fur-and-hugs guy?

"Hey! Bear-thing, uh...Ted!"

Teddie had been dripping a Topsicle all over the Electronics department when Marie appeared and startled him. "Emmy-chan? You look beary tired. Did you run all this way just to see little ol' me?"

"Get me in there," Marie pointed to a TV, "I need to find him." At Teddie's confused look, she added, "I need to get to Yu!"

"Oh, you don't need the TV World to see Sensei-"

"Look, I don't have one of those phelltones-er, cellphones? Whatever – and I don't know how to get to where he lives, but it's really important and-"

"WAAAIIIT!" Teddie dropped his Topsicle stick and waved his paws frantically, "I'm trying to tell you it's easier than that! All you gotta do is head left from here until you find the kittycats and you'll find him!"

"You mean he's _**here**_!?" A storm of emotions was brewing in Marie's stomach, but she couldn't dwell on it now. "Bear, if you're lying to me-"

"I never lie about Sensei."

"Okay," Marie said more to herself than to him, "Good. He'll know what to do."

"Sensei will know what to do!" Teddie sparkled and began heading off the way he told her. Then he stopped. "...do about what?"

"Can't you feel it? Something ominous is coming, and it's not going to be good for anyone that gets in its way." She sighed, massaging her forehead. "I'm no good at being The Nose. Where is he, anyway? Good thing I've got a real job, otherwise, I'd be broke and homeless. Stupidvagueprophecyspewingoldschnoz!"

"Aww, I think you have a cute nose, Emmy-chan."

"Really? Wait, no! Shut up! We need to find Yu!"

"Relax, you're with Teddie! Even if Sensei isn't at Nana-chan's house, I can sniff him out!" Teddie inhaled deeply...and then sneezed violently. "Maybe."

The yelling had reached a point where everyone was making noise, but no one was listening to it. Koromaru barked and barked, and Aigis refused to translate for him, scolding him for his "harsh language". Talking about Shinji made Mitsuru angrier because she still blamed herself for October 4th, and Akihiko had no right calling Ken a broken record because he never stopped bringing up his best friend, either.

Yukari, meanwhile: "Maybe if you weren't so stuck to your _**best friend's**_ ass, you would have noticed what was going on!"

That hurt. That was indeed what Akihiko had realized, but Yukari throwing it back in his face hurt. "Well, at least **my** _**best friend**_ didn't steal a girl right out from under me! Nooo...that honor was all Makoto's!"

"Well, at least he took the initiative!" said Mitsuru.

"What else did he 'take", that's what I wanna know." Akihiko muttered.

"Don't be disgusting," Mitsuru pulled a face.

"No, that's a good question." This caught Yukari's attention, and though her face looked as if she really didn't want to know the answer, her voice still said, "Did you sleep with him?"

"Did _**you**_?" Mitsuru shot back.

Yukari's silence was all that was needed, and Mitsuru covered her mouth in shock. Fuuka gasped. Even Junpei of all people seemed to understand. Holy shit, Makoto was actually having sex with these girls? Dating more than one person was one thing, but…

Now that everyone had stopped screaming at the same time, they all noticed how oddly dark and quiet it was. Small towns were quiet, anyway, but even Inaba had bugs and animals and background noises.

A blinding pain shot through Akihiko's head, strong enough to make him fall to his knees in agony as he clutched his head. This was no hangover, though; around him, he heard the gasps of the others as they similarly suffered. Before he could pass out, though, the moment passed, and…

...he couldn't hear Caesar.

His Persona was usually dormant unless Akihiko was about to say or do something stupid, but he could always feel Caesar in the back of his mind, waiting for a fight. But now there was nothing. He tried reaching out, concentrating, even touching his Evoker as if he was going to summon...but nothing happened.

"Guys, what's going on? My head is emptier than usual." Junpei seemed to be going through the same thing.

"You, too? Okay, something's wrong. Caesar was there, and now he's missing."

"Initiating summoning sequence." Aigis made whirring noises, but accomplished nothing. "Sequence...failed?"

Koromaru was running in circles, sniffing as if he were looking for something. He put his tail between his legs and whimpered.

"Does anyone have a Persona?" asked Ken.

"I can't tell!" wailed Fuuka, "I can't sense anyone's Persona, because I can't talk to Juno!" She started sobbing.

Yukari scooped her up and tried to console her, all anger forgotten. "What's going on? What do we do?"

What could they do? No one had ever mentioned a Persona vanishing. Was there even anyone left who could explain this? "I don't know. Mitsuru, can you call somebody to – Mitsuru…?"

Mitsuru had collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut, staring at nothing, the illusion of life removed. Her eyes were terrified, and all she could manage was a lost little voice.

"She's gone...I can't feel anything…"

* * *

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I am not good at writing fight scenes.

The song I'd always imagined playing during Mitsuru and Akihiko's sparring, from Akihiko's perspective to Mitsuru, is "Power" by Julian Calor (sorry FF doesn't allow links). I think the lyrics to this are just perfect for their relationship. Akihiko's got the strength, but Mitsuru's in control.

Also, go back and watch that Shiroku Bar sidequest again – the old lady's pet "son" is indeed named Akihiko! And even funnier – he's an ELECTRIC EEL!

Regardless which sports club you picked – I just picked the swim team here – MC3 always loses to the Star Arcana link, a guy with a single mom and multiple siblings.

When Dancing in Moonlight came out and Mitsuru's trailer landed on YouTube, the fans went mental about how her sprite had no ass to speak of – yet they gave her the ass shot! Do people really go crazy for asses? Well, to each his own, I guess.

Is it official or fanon that the Kirijo Group hired Yukari's mom to seduce her dad into working for them?


	8. Ashes

Crumbling to dust.

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* * *

For the first time in over a month, Inaba was quiet again.

Naoto had not heard from Mitsuru or any of the Shadow Operatives since the altercation, but something had happened that had everyone scrambling to contact the Velvet Room. Marie, never one for subtlety, had melodramatically thrown herself at Yu declaring that he was humanity's last hope and she had unwavering faith in him because he was handsome. What Dojima had thought of this...who could say. Once she had finally calmed down, Marie was able to explain that all the negative repressed feelings of the Shadow Operatives had coalesced into what Kanji had helpfully christened a "Doom Cloud", and Naoto could not help but refer to it as such even in her thoughts.

"You mean…their Personas just left them?" Chie tried to process. The team had hastily gathered at Junes with very little idea of what was happening, but fully invested all the same, since Labrys had left the Amagi Inn in great distress that morning. Disaster aside, it was nice to see that the team had fully accepted her as one of their own, in spite of both being a robot and unwittingly used for destruction a la Namatame.

Yukiko was supposed to be glaring at Marie in Rise's stead, but was too worried to keep up appearances. "Could that happen to ours?"

"I dunno." Their official source for this serious business didn't seem to be taking the business all that seriously. "Do you still feel like you did before you got your Persona?"

"No!" Kanji immediately declared. "Course not." Quietly, he added, "Not totally."

Naoto helped him save face. "We've all come to understand ourselves much better over the past year. Each of us have vowed to express our feelings instead of bottling them up, and should we fail, our friends will pick us up and remind us of our shared truths."

"I don't think the Shadow Operatives are friends anymore," Yosuke pointed out.

"Yeah, **major** issues going on there." Marie had a notebook in her hands that she had been furiously scribbling in during their conversation. "Liz and Theo went bonkers, too – something about doors and the moon...I don't know what they were going on about." She sighed. "The Nose is missing, Margaret just sits there shuffling her cards all day going, 'I see...most troubling...', and there's fog in Inaba again. There's just way too much pathos – even for ME!"

Yu had been characteristically silent, a pensive look on his face. Naoto had hoped he would have some kind of insight as to what was going on, having been told about Personas and bonds directly from the source. But what he said next was:

"I guess we'll have to take out Adachi by ourselves, then. Hmm. Just like old times, huh?"

That was rather cold. Though they'd been unwittingly pitted against one another during the tournament, the Shadow Operatives had quickly grown to be valuable allies and friends of theirs. This was a serious problem, and one they might need help solving.

"But, this Doom Cloud..." Kanji was thinking along the same lines.

"Is that really what we're calling it now?" grumbled Marie.

Yu shook his head. "Adachi knows more than what he's letting on. We might have to beat it out of him, but I'm sure he's the key to this mystery." Kanji looked skeptical, so he added, "You can't punch a cloud, Kanji."

"What about the Shadow Operatives?" asked Yukiko.

Naoto had been thinking about this herself. "If they don't have Personas," she mused, "I'm not sure it's still possible to get them in and out of the TV World." Predictably, Yosuke paled at this. Naoto thought she was the only one to notice until she saw Chie shift uncomfortably.

"So, we go beat the shit out of Adachi until he tells us something," said Kanji, "but he's not gonna fight us until we get the magic word, remember?"

"This is true." Adachi was slavishly devoted to his "game", and they were always forced to play along in order to get anywhere with him. The only reason he covertly helped them out during the tournament was because he felt Minazuki had been cheating, and he wanted to level the playing field.

As if he'd read her mind, Yu continued. "There's also Minazuki. He's the one who sprung Adachi, and he had a reason why. What was it?"

"Other than he's an ass?" replied Yosuke. "Adachi's an ass, too – and he's got a Persona."

"That's actually a good point, Yosuke-senpai. Remember that Minazuki appears to be unable to summon his Persona, if our theories are correct. He may have been looking for an ally who is able to traverse the TV World freely, since he is also unable to move in and out of the TV on his own."

"But Adachi kept saying the TV World was like that when he got there," Chie remembered, "If he didn't do it, and Minazuki didn't do it...who did?"

Who did, indeed. There didn't appear to be anyone else in there besides Adachi, and no more kidnappings had been reported since they'd rescued the children and confronted Tsukuda...

"OF COURSE!"

Everyone at the table leapt up in various degrees of alarm. Chie struck a Kung Fu pose, looking for assailants.

Teddie looked around nervously. "Nao-chan, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Kanji put down the chair he'd been holding and smiled at Naoto. "You just figured out somethin', didn't you?" he asked.

"Everyone, this is very important. I need you all to swear to me that you won't repeat any of what I am about to tell you."

"'Course!"

"I swear it!"

"Mm-hmm!"

"You have my word, Naoto."

"This bear's lips are zipped!" Teddie declared.

Yosuke couldn't help retorting, "That'd be the day. But seriously, Naoto, no one's gonna say a word to anyone about anything to do with Personas."

The team could always be counted on. Rise could be filled in later, but for now, that left…

Marie was still writing, but stopped when she realized everyone was staring at her. "What? Quit staring at me like that! You can't read these! They're my own personal pathos!"

"Marie," Yu was the only person able to tear Marie away from her poetry. "Promise us you won't reveal any of Naoto's classified information."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go tell all my tons of friends-"

"**Marie...**"

"OKAY, OKAY! I won't say a word! Sheesh! Stupidseriousheartthrobjerkwiththesoulfuleyes!"

Yu shrugged that right off. "Naoto?"

"The police have gone over the remains of the warehouse in Okina with a fine-toothed comb. One body was found in the rubble. Cause of death..." here Naoto looked specifically at Yu, who had been present that day, "smoke inhalation." She observed as he no doubt began to put the pieces together.

Yu did not disappoint. "Then that was..."

"A man named Yamamoto, whom Akihiko-san dispatched before we reached Dr. Tsukuda and Yuuta-kun."

"So where's Tsukuda?"

"An excellent question."

"What happened after we left?" asked Yosuke. "Did he get away?"

Yu shuddered. The cool-as-the-proverbial-cucumber, outwardly fearless Yu Narukami shuddered as he recalled the events that had unfolded. "He's dead. Mitsuru-san killed him."

Gasps rang through the group. "M-M-Mitchan?" Teddie's admiration of Mitsuru appeared to have taken a sharp decline.

"Damn..." added Kanji.

"Oh, that guy." Marie didn't seem at all surprised by the declaration or proclamation of death. "Yeah, he's the one that gave me the clicky thing. Kind of a jerk. Good riddance, I guess."

"I would hold that thought, Marie-san." Naoto tried to ignore the piercing stare of a Yu whose interest was piqued – in the _**case**_, not her! – and continued. "The corpse of Yamamoto was, as I said, the only corpse recovered from the wreckage. Dr. Tsukuda was never found."

Predictably, Yu protested, "But that's impossible!", just as she herself had when told. "He...she speared him with an icicle! Through the chest!"

"DAMN!" Kanji repeated, looking equal parts terrified and awed.

"Even if the fire melted the ice, he'd have a huge hole in his body. I know he was a doctor, but I don't think he could have patched **himself** up on the way out of a collapsing building!" This was the most rattled any of them had seen Yu since Nanako's kidnapping.

Yukiko gasped. "Unless...he was already dead?"

"Aah! Yukiko!" Chie squealed and swatted her friend's arm. "Don't even start that!"

"He _**was**_ dead, though...except he wasn't." Yosuke tried to put the doctor's unique situation into words. "Then dead people started turning up dead...except the not-dead dead guy wasn't dead after all...then Mitsuru-san killed him...but he's still not dead. Yeah, I'm going with Yukiko on this one. He's like some vengeful spirit out of a movie. You can't kill this guy."

"So Dr. Jerkface isn't dead," said Marie, "Where is he, then?"

A moment passed, and everyone sans Naoto finally realized. "HE'S IN THE TV!"

"Holy shit!" added Kanji.

"So we're back to Minazuki," said Yu. "He needs Tsukuda to recall his Persona, and he needed Adachi to get Tsukuda into the TV World."

"Then...the doc's dungeon is a black hole?" wondered Chie.

"Assuming he's still alive," replied Yu. He chuckled ruefully. "Hmm. Adachi was telling the truth for once. Who'd have thought?" Then he realized something else. "Who else knows about this?"

"Most likely, Akihiko-san," said Naoto, "The Port Island police have received the same reports. I've left him and the others quite a few voicemails, but no one has gotten back to me."

"But this is beary important!" Teddie was deathly serious for once.

"If Dr. Tsukuda is an angry death spirit, he might decide to kill Mitsuru-san for killing him!" Yukiko added.

"YOU'RE CREEPING ME OUT!" Chie yelled.

Yu shook his head. "There's nothing they can do at this point besides worry. We're the ones with Personas – it's up to us to track down Tsukuda **and** Minazuki and put a stop to whatever they've got planned. Hopefully, they'll know something about the missing Personas."

He had a valid point, as always. Perhaps informing Mitsuru about this at an already trying time would only upset her. It would be up to Akihiko to deal with the Shadow Operatives now.

* * *

Who knew silence could be deafening?

Caesar was definitely gone. Akihiko hadn't been alone in his head for years now, and his brain felt as if it were rattling around in there like the last, slightly dented gumball in a vending machine. Sobering up hadn't done a damn thing except give him a debilitating headache. He was tired without healing spells to rejuvenate him. But if Caesar's silence was deafening...Mitsuru's was complete sensory deprivation.

Mitsuru had completely shut down. She wouldn't eat, wouldn't get out of bed, wouldn't even speak to anyone, not even Kikuno. She'd gone into hibernation mode like she was another robot – which she might as well been, considering she was "made" by Ergo, too. Not even the threat of being hospitalized again got any emotion out of her. He supposed he couldn't blame her. Once the initial shock wore off, the others had gone back to their daily lives and left her alone. She hadn't been alone for nearly seven years. It was like backsliding into a person she no longer was.

Akihiko had spent three days sitting outside Mitsuru's bedroom door, waiting for her to speak to him, to no avail. He supposed he deserved most of that. Loudly wondering if she was still a virgin out in public was one of the dumbest things he'd done this decade. He'd ruined her friendship with Yukari before she had a chance to do it herself – and he _**still**_ hadn't managed to tell her about Tsukuda!

Naoto had left a dozen voicemails and texts. They'd left so early the morning after that hardly anyone else was up. It was just too embarrassing to admit that the professional Shadow Response Unit had failed at something a bunch of teenagers easily did the year before. This was their damn **job**. Maybe he should have let her tell Mitsuru about Tsukuda. She was unemotional enough. If he hadn't insisted on being the one to break it to Mitsuru, she'd have known by now. Mitsuru probably wouldn't have executed someone smaller than her.

His phone went off again, and he'd finally decided to talk to Naoto when he realized it wasn't Naoto at all. It was Mitsuru!

...at least, that was Mitsuru's number. Kind of odd for her to be summoning everyone to her house, but it was also sort of SO headquarters. She no doubt wanted to address the future of the team since they had no real method of combating Shadows anymore.

Akihiko was let in by a maid and offered a protein shake as usual, but he didn't see Mitsuru anywhere, and was starting to wonder if he'd gotten the wrong idea. He really started to sweat when he was led to the sitting area outside of Mitsuru's bedroom. _Uhh...what's going on? _A few awkward minutes passed, and he got even more confused as first Yukari and Aigis and then Junpei and Ken showed up, all looking at one another with no clue what they were supposed to be doing. When Fuuka showed up, she nearly bolted when she saw the others, but stopped when a familiar face arrived.

"Ah," Kikuno approached them, "thank you, everyone."

"Kikuno, do you know anything about this?" The fact that she was civil to Akihiko made him think that Mitsuru hadn't said anything about their fight. "Mitsuru said something about-"

Then it hit him.

"She didn't say anything, did she?"

Kikuno held up Mitsuru's cell phone. "No. But she needs to."

"You took Senpai's phone?" Yukari shouldn't have been as shocked as she was. Kikuno tended to do what she decided was best for Mitsuru, sometimes without even consulting Mitsuru.

"In her present state, I could have taken her kidney and she wouldn't have noticed." As a maid, Kikuno wasn't actually supposed to fraternize with guests, but she took a seat anyway and even removed her little cap. She was the closest thing Mitsuru had to a mother in Iwatodai, and the worry showed in her face. "Tell me what happened. Lady Mitsuru has barely acknowledged my existence and the only words she's spoken since returning were, 'She's gone'. You must tell me what happened!"

It was almost comical how everyone looked to Akihiko to speak, even after taking each other's heads off just a few nights ago. Trouble was, he didn't know any more than they did. He might've had he answered Naoto at least once. Might as well just keep it simple, stupid. "We've lost our Personas."

"What?"

"Nobody knows what happened. We were arguing..." Yukari gave him a look, but he shook his head. There was no reason to lie to Kikuno, not about something like this. "We were fighting, and weren't paying attention to what was going on, and our Personas just...stormed out and slammed the door behind them."

"No kidding – I've had brain freezes that were less intense!" said Junpei.

Kikuno didn't have a Persona, but she knew how long Mitsuru'd had one, and it all began to make sense to her. "Oh, Milady..." She looked like she wanted to cry, but she forced herself to stand again, a true professional. "You must get her out of bed. I don't understand what has happened, but cowering in bed is not going to solve anything. There have been way too many calls from company executives and stockholders who aren't buying that Lady Mitsuru has gone on yet another vacation, and Public Safety has been infiltrating their ranks to spy on Kirijo. I mean no disrespect when I say that there are bigger things at stake!"

"She doesn't want to talk to me." Akihiko getting the silent treatment was nothing new, but Mitsuru slowly killing herself was. He supposed barging into her room would be worth getting execu-er, kicked in the stomach."Have you tried tickling her?" Junpei laughed at this for some reason, and Yukari yanked off his hat and smacked him with it.

"I've tried everything." Kikuno sighed, a habit she'd subconsciously picked up from her employer. "No wonder she feels so alone."

"It's weird, isn't it? Being alone with your thoughts again?" said Yukari. "I mean, I never thought I'd get used to it, but I kind of liked having someone else to talk to – even if she was pretty much me."

"I haven't thought about Shadows for a while now," Ken noted, "There's been soccer and exams and Student Council...I felt like a kid again!"

"As opposed to the ancient 14-year-old you are now?" laughed Akihiko.

Fuuka continued. "I'm not as tired as I used to be. Before, it was so easy to pick up on everyone's thoughts that it was like everyone was crowding me. Now I can concentrate more on school and cooking." She didn't seem to understand why everyone was cringing.

"I have concluded that this is what it means to be human," said Aigis. "Trivial concerns on a more personal scale."

"Well, you all have lives. That's what Mitsuru wanted for you – to live while you still had the chance." Akihiko had never really gotten that chance himself. Losing his parents and Miki so early took a huge chunk out of his life. What was there to live for? It was almost by accident that he discovered boxing and allowed it to give him a goal to strive towards. Having a Persona clued him into another reason to live: protecting others. He could now do so as a cop, thanks to his training. Having a Persona for a few years kind of felt like boot camp now. He'd graduated, and now he could settle into a nice life.

"It's funny," said Junpei in a rare introspective mood, "when I was just a normal teenager, I used to dream of being special. Then I found out I **was** special, and realized being special is harder than it looks." He smiled. "I think...I'm okay being normal."

"Our Junpei's growing up!" Yukari teased, wiping away imaginary tears.

"Aw, come on, Yuka-tan! That was my big character development, and you just pooh-poohed all over it." The moment was lost as everyone cracked up laughing at Junpei.

"...Normal?"

Miraculously, something had gotten Mitsuru out of bed – but she looked like death warmed over, nearly unrecognizable with her hair limp and tangled, and red-rimmed, flat, lifeless eyes. One stiff breeze could have blown her pale little body completely away. A sleepwalking desiccated leaf.

"Senpai!" gasped Fuuka.

"This is normal?"

"Mitsuru, it's okay." Akihiko immediately braced Mitsuru's swaying frame with his own and tried to reassure her. "I'm here. We're all here, okay?"

"She's not here." Mitsuru pulled away from him with whatever strength she had left and wrapped her own arms around herself. "She's gone, and I'm alone." She sobbed so violently that she shook. "**You think this is 'normal'?**"

"Oh, Senpai, we're all in the same boat-" Yukari tried to comfort her next.

Mitsuru shoved her away, too. "You're _**normal!**_ **I don't even know what 'normal' is!**" Her pain was stronger than her will, and they were afraid she'd collapse. "You had a _**childhood**_. Playing outside, believing there was more good in the world than evil, only seeing a doctor when you were ill. I was eight years old the first time I saw my mother become a coffin during the Dark Hour. I can't remember a life without Personas, Shadows, Evokers...Shadows ARE my normal!" By some miracle, she finally sat – or more accurately, collapsed and there just so happened to be a sofa underneath her. "Imagine losing an arm. Everything becomes impossible...knowing that you aren't the same. Now imagine by some twist of fate that you were the only two-armed creature in a sea of single-armed people...everyone telling you, 'but this is wonderful! Now you are _normal_!' **But I've never been 'normal'! I've lost an arm, and if this is 'normal', then I don't want it!" **

Akihiko wanted to scoop her up and hug her, but he was afraid he'd crush her into dust. Mitsuru had tied all her importance and self-worth to having a Persona. It wasn't hard to imagine why; her fucking grandfather valued the fruits of his research above all else. His disappointment at her being a girl was only lessened when she proved she had power. She only saw her father when it was time to talk about Personas. Everyone in this room had only met her because of Personas. It was hard for him to relate, because he'd already had his own personality and sense of self before Awakening. The others had, too – even Ken, who was an elementary senior citizen. Mitsuru at eight and Mitsuru at twenty-one were like two halves of a Before and After diet commercial. _I gained over 80% power in just 13 years! Thanks, Persona! _

Mitsuru turned sideways, and he nearly lost sight of her. "How am I supposed to do this? I don't know who I am without her."

Koromaru tilted his head quizzically. "You are Mitsuru-san," translated Aigis.

"And who is that?"

Koromaru whined.

Seeing his chance, Akihiko sat next to her and gingerly reached for her hand. She didn't shy away...but she didn't really react, either. "Mitsuru is a beautifully intelligent woman who came into my life and made me realize I didn't really have one before then." This may have been a bad time to confess, but the words just started pouring out of his mouth the moment he opened it. "We're all better people with you around."

Yukari was staring at him like she was trying to set him on fire with her eyes – but her expression changed drastically when Mitsuru reached up and gently touched his face, the light returning to them for the first time since they got here. She quickly claimed the spot on Mitsuru's other side and nearly tackled her to the floor with an overly enthusiastic hug. "Senpai, you're the best friend I've ever had! I know I may have judged you unfairly in the past-" Akihiko was about to cough in protest at this, but Junpei beat him to the punch, "-but that's because I never took the time to get to know you. I didn't realize you thought your Persona was the only thing important about you. It's SO not! You're smart, and you're dedicated, and you can keep a bunch of idiotic kids from running around and getting themselves killed because you're such a great leader."

"And...you're kind of like a mom...especially for those of us who don't have one," added Ken.

"We've still got your voice in our heads anyway, because you've taught us to stop and think when we're about to do something stupid," said Junpei.

"That alone has saved Stupei's life multiple times!" Yukari couldn't help but quip.

Fuuka continued. "You take care of us and help keep us on the right track even when we don't know what it is. No one could take your place."

Akihiko didn't know what it was about that statement that made Mitsuru tear up more, but Fuuka deemed it important enough to speak up at a normal volume without stuttering, so it had to be important.

Koromaru came over and placed his head on Mitsuru's lap, his eyes set to Maximum Cute as he wagged. "You are a good girl, Mitsuru-san," translated Aigis.

Everyone laughed. "The highest possible praise!" chuckled Mitsuru as she petted him.

Akihiko had to remind himself how immature it was to be jealous of a dog.

* * *

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Short chapter is short because it was frustrating. Going to pause for a bit to do AkiMitsu week, and then I'll be back at it.

I don't think Yu was supposed to have been there, but I needed someone else in the room when Tsukuda was killed. Solution? Edit!

Labrys had a whole game about getting her Persona, which is why she isn't here. I'm not alienating her; she just seems to have a lot more in common with the IT, and the SO have their own pre-Labrys issues to work out.

Take a shot every time you see the word "normal".

No wait, don't.

"No one could take your place" is what Mitsuru tells Fuuka in P3 when she asks her to investigate the 1999 explosion and Fuuka admits she feels compelled to help out of gratitude for being accepted by SEES.

Shinji claims Koromaru has a "Maximum Cute" setting in Persona Q when he manages to convince Mitsuru to let him go on a walk in the middle of a dungeon.


	9. Inter-lewd

Into the mind of a stir-crazy serial killer.

There **will **be a Minazuki chapter – I'm not breaking the narrative for it – but here's a little setup in the meantime. Be patient.

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* * *

Time didn't pass all that much in the TV World, he knew that.

Which meant he had no idea if he was supposed to be bored as hell or not.

Adachi sat on what used to be the apocalyptic ruins of Inaba's shopping district, watching the "room" around him warp and morph into some weird random shit. He couldn't claim to know how this place worked, but it usually worked to his advantage, so whatever. It had been all sunshine and friendship until he'd gotten here.

Those fucking brats.

He was surprised they'd taken so long to figure out he was here. The Midnight Channel must have been on the fritz. Not that he'd been in a hurry to reveal himself or anything. It was nice not being harassed by Narukami and his Boy Scouts. Those Inoperatives had been sniffing around, too, acting all high-and-mighty. And it was all because of Minazuki.

_ "You sure don't know when to let shit flush, do you, kid? I told you already – rules are rules. I'm abiding by them. Ain't that big of me? You oughta try it sometime instead of trying to blow shit up and whining about it."_

_Sho Minazuki leaned forward with a glare that threatened to shatter glass. "Time for a new game," he said, "My game. The only rule is...there are no rules."_

Stupid kid.

Hey, I know! Let's do the same thing that didn't work the last time, only bigger and dumber! Nobody will know it's me!

Minazuki might as well have hired a skywriter for all the subtlety he displayed in breaking Adachi out of prison _**AGAIN.**_ Gee, who else could have done that? Certainly not Dojima! If he dragged those damn crosses out again…

But then Minazuki went and did the most infuriating thing: _**HE DISAFUCKINGPPEARED. **_No popping in to see what Adachi was up to. No word on what was going on in reality. Nothing. Adachi had been sitting here watching Shadows ooze around while he waited for someone to come find him, bored as hell...and **hungry**, too. He hadn't felt like taking a chance and poking his head out to find something to eat. Minazuki didn't tell him how long he was going to be here.

Come to think of it, he didn't tell him much at all.

_ "Look, brat, I don't want any part of your 'blow up the world because nobody wuvves you!' crap. Can't you see you're going about this all wrong? What good is revenge if there's no one around to witness it?"_

_He'd have to be blind not to notice the kid wincing and clutching his head every few seconds. "He lied to me," Minazuki gritted out, "He lied to me and now I want to make him pay!" Whoever the hell _that_ was. "You are going to help me." _

_It wasn't a request. It was a goddamned order. All Adachi ever heard were orders. Do this, go there, clean the floors, turn the TV off, wake up. He'd learned to tolerate orders from people with authority over him. This kid did **not** have authority over him – or anyone. Not since a god got pissed off at his snot-nosed attitude and kicked him out of the way._

"_Oh yeah, I'll help ya real good. Make a little banner out of bed sheets: "GO BRAT! BEAT THEM OTHER BRATS!" He pumped his fist in the air as if he were at a sports game._

_Damn kid had no sense of humor. "__You are capable of imprisoning someone in that TV World. __You are going to do that for me now."_

"_Well, since you asked so nicely...no."_

"_I'm not giving you a choice."_

"_And what's stopping you from chucking people in? You have a Persona, don't you?"_

_Minazuki went quiet._

"_Psst – this is the part where you say, 'Of course I do, Adachi-san! It was so smart of you to remember!' Did you forget your line?"_

_The kid said nothing, just gripped his head again. _

"_Well, how about that. You just got your new toy and you broke it already."_

"_Why? WHY ISN'T IT WORKING!?" Okay, this was new. Kid's Persona didn't seem to want to play. "He promised me he'd make it work!" He'd bust a blood vessel if he didn't stop squeezing his head like a zit._

"_Could you try not to off yourself in my presence, __buddy__? __They don't exactly __trust__ me around here." It wasn't that he was concerned for the brat – or the new idea that Personas could just stop working. __If someone died while talking to him, there was no way he could claim he didn't do it. _

"_I want him back!"_

"_Okay, kid, too many 'hims'. Who are we talking about now?_

_Minazuki didn't answer, instead, he looked around the room. "Is there a TV around here?"_

_Adachi sighed. "Why do I keep getting mixed up with you?"_

And that was the bulk of the information he'd gotten. Throw someone in a TV for Minazuki because they promised to fix his busted Persona. Except he never found this person. Minazuki went out to presumably look for him, and never came back. It had to have been several days by this point.

Dammit, prison was hell, but at least there was _**food**_. And a _**toilet**_. No wonder his victims died after about three days or so! They were starving and full of shit!

Before Adachi could develop the human ability to emphasize, an object formed in front of him: a TV set. It looked like something his grandmother would have owned, and appeared to have been dropped down the stairs a few times, but it was a TV big enough for Adachi to get his head and shoulders through.

"We-hell-hell, what've we got here? Happy New Year to me!" He poked his head through and found himself in the back of that stupid-ass store, earwormy jingle and all. No one seemed to be around, so it must have been after closing by now. "I think I'll amuse myself with a little retail therapy! Hide your cabbage, Inaba! I'm back!"

* * *

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So there's a little more to the mystery. Remember in _**Shadowborne, **_Chapters 24-25? Drugs prescribed for headaches and nausea were found in Minazuki's shack because he was having trouble summoning. He was kidnapping children for Tsukuda in exchange for something. Then Tsukuda left the hospital as part of **his** plans, screw the kid!

Just because you **have** a Persona, doesn't mean you can _**use**_ it. We've seen that before.

No, that's not one of Teddie's TVs. Even he's not that stupid. Adachi has this affinity for the Shadow World, and it's starting to manifest.


	10. Camera Obscura

Everything's upside down.

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* * *

A funeral, though no one had died.

Kanji barely remembered his old man's funeral. He spent most of it in shock, relatives talking over his head about things he didn't understand or didn't really care about. Dad was dead, Ma was grieving, and Inaba got really, really weird. Not that anyone really talked to him much before, but after he started going back to school, people just...avoided it. They talked about homework, about the holidays, even about the weather, but no one wanted to even mention that someone in their community had died. It almost felt like they didn't give a shit – which pissed him off. _Why are we pretending nothing happened? My dad's dead! Don't __act like nothing's wrong! _But they did. They tiptoed around Kanji like they were too afraid to speak to him...and it just made it easier to stop talking to them at all.

Some weird shit had gone down and they were now the only Persona-users left, but no one was talking about it. Yu went home, and they went to school, and Kanji took a big order for the shop which took up most of his time, but left his brain free to think. A Persona could just run off and leave you like a pet escaping through an open door? Would it come back, then, when it got hungry? Were theirs going to be next?

At least he knew he wasn't the only one. Naoto had been blowing up Mitsuru's phone trying to get some kind of answers. She didn't like being left out of the loop, either. Her brain must've been going in circles trying to figure shit out without any details. That Marie chick didn't really tell them anything, except that this Doom Cloud wiped out Personas. Akihiko didn't answer at first, either, and then he finally said something like "We need some time to deal with this", and that was it. At least he acted sorry for ignoring Naoto.

Damn, it was almost time to bring Naoto some food! The others probably made fun of him, but someone had to look out for her. When she was working, she got so into it that she probably didn't even stop to use the bathroom. She'd forget to blink if it wasn't automatic.

Plus, it was worth it to see her flustered when he remembered to make something she really liked.

Yeah, Kanji knew he had it bad for the detective. No use pretending he didn't. But Naoto didn't need any of that shit in her life right now, and he wasn't sure if she ever would. She was going places, and she didn't need a punk like him dragging her down. They were so different from one another; she was calm, while he flew off the handle every five seconds. She was smart, and he was dumb not as smart as she was (the only time she **did** get pissed off was when people called him "dumb"). He was into "girly" things, and she had the world thinking she was a man. How did they even fit together?

He reached Naoto's apartment expecting to find her too engrossed in her work to hear him knocking, but the door swung open and her eyes lit up. Then she grabbed him by the jacket and yanked him into the apartment.

"Wonderful! You're exactly who I need right now!"

"Wh-whaaat!?" Shit, there goes his nose! He looked down at Naoto, who was red-faced and sweaty, breathing hard. He'd seen a movie like this once…

Naoto must not have seen that same movie, but she did realize she hadn't explained herself. "You are wearing rather heavy shoes, are you not?"

"Uh, yeah. I could take 'em off, if you want-"

Before he could finish, Naoto tugged on his arm and pointed to the floor. "STOP THAT COCKROACH!"

"Whoa! Oh, okay!" He made short work of the bug.

When Naoto's breathing slowed down, she composed herself. "If that had laid eggs in this apartment, I'd never be rid of them." She collapsed onto the couch. "I suppose having multiple legs is advantageous when one is an invasive pest."

"You got 'em, too, huh?"

"I was forced to replenish my supply of notepads at Junes."

"Dammit, Yosuke-senpai, that's the closest I ever got," Kanji muttered under his breath.

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing!" This had turned into a different movie. "I, uh...I guess you're not gonna want this." Luckily, he hadn't spilled any of the fried rice he'd brought over.

"Perhaps later." Naoto gave him a lopsided smile, and it made his nose itch again. "My apologies. I am sure this wasn't what you expected when you arrived here tonight."

"Hey, we're all in this bug war together. I swear, beating down Shadows is much easier."

"You might be right," admitted Naoto, "I haven't had much of an opportunity to ponder this new situation, I'm afraid. For a Persona to suddenly abandon its wielder…"

"I thought we figured that a Persona **was** you, only better?"

"Which is what makes the situation so perplexing. There are too many things the Shadow Operatives aren't telling us." That little face was so serious. "As you can imagine, the amount of information on Personas and Shadows is limited – and the bulk of it is controlled by the Kirijo Group. I have some clearance, but everything I've found is something we've already known from experience." She drew her legs up underneath her, a ball of frustration. "The dissolution of Ergo Research has unfortunately taken with it the drive to discover and question."

"And experiment," Kanji had to add.

"Unfortunately, the only knowledge we have originated from those experiments. Everything I've found so far indicates that this phenomenon is unprecedented. If we cannot find an answer," at this, Naoto sat up straight, "I'm afraid the Shadow Operatives will no longer be able to use Personas."

This was some heavy shit, for sure. On the one hand, Personas had caused Inaba quite a bit of trouble. Things were a lot simple when a guy didn't have to think about the end of the world and murders every day. On the other hand...they'd all grown so much thanks to having a Persona. Kanji was no longer afraid to express himself and had stopped resorting to violence to solve his problems. He had real friends now, people who encouraged and cared about him. Without Personas, he never would have met Yu – or Naoto. Could he really go back to the way things were before, now that he'd seen something so much better? If it all ended tomorrow, what would become of them?

Naoto must have been thinking the same things, because she quickly changed the subject. "I don't mean to keep you from the store. Your mother will worry."

"Nah, she knows I'm with you." Naoto went so red that it looked like she was on fire, so Kanji quickly added, "I mean, you can't get in trouble when you're around a cop, right?" This had the effect of petering out yet another conversation, and both of them began awkwardly searching for something more to say.

Hooray for cellphones. "It's Akihiko-san at last!" exclaimed Naoto as she punched out one of her ALL CAPS messages. "He wants to meet with me about the incident. I'm not sure Marie-san's cryptic assessment is going to be of any comfort, though."

"Better than nothin'."

"Indeed." Naoto finally looked like herself as her business mind took over. "He'll be waiting on the hillside. Will you come along?"

"Uh, Naoto, I'm, uh...not a cop, y'know."

"You know just as much about this as I do at this point," Naoto insisted. "Also...I would feel more at ease having you accompany me." Okay, if she didn't stop blushing, Kanji was going to bleed to death all over her floor. _Thank you, Doom Cloud!_

* * *

If they thought Akihiko looked old before, they'd think him absolutely ancient today. He hadn't shaved for some time, and his eyes had lost that animated gleam Naoto saw when they battled.

"Sorry," was the first thing he said when he saw them, "Things are... not good." He did not react much to Kanji's presence.

"Please extend my sympathies to the rest of the Shadow Operatives," Naoto began. Would 'Sorry for your loss' be appropriate here? Did it sound too patronizing? "I understand this must be a difficult time for you."

Kanji didn't worry about such things. "You look like shit, man. What've you been doing?"

Akihiko shrugged. "Working. What else is there?" He kept his hands in his pockets in lieu of a habit or crutch. "Keeps me from thinking too hard."

Naoto had been expecting an entirely different Akihiko, and seeing him this morose was hard to work with. "Has anyone on your end found anything conclusive?"

He scoffed. "You're forgetting it's just me, Mitsuru, and robots. Everyone else is off living. Labrys is obsessed with Minazuki, Aigis doesn't know anything more than we do. Mitsuru...I can't do anything for Mitsuru." He looked unbelievably pained. "Nothing that she really wants, anyway."

"I'm afraid I can't really offer much. Marie-san – who you may have realized is not entirely human – has determined that all of your negative feelings have morphed into some sort of 'Doom Cloud'-" here, Kanji sniffled and blushed, "-which is physically oppressing all of Inaba."

Akihiko snorted. "Whose idea was it to call it that?"

"Essentially," Naoto continued before Kanji could object, "You have lost your Personas because you've lost yourselves."

"Great. Psychobabble from a literal weather girl. How do we get them back?"

"I don't know."

Now Akihiko sighed. He really was remarkably close to Mitsuru.

"Hey, you think we're happy?" Kanji had been ruffled by Akihiko's jab at his nomenclature. "Inaba's had enough clouds of shit already. You can't do anything about it now, so we've gotta – and we gotta enough to deal with already, what with Adachi bein' back and that crackpot doc in the TV…"

"What?" Akihiko nearly pounced on Kanji. "You found Tsukuda?" A spark returned to his eyes.

"Yes and no." Naoto had subdued people bigger than her before, but she didn't know if she had the heart to in this case. So he did indeed know that Tsukuda was missing. "The odds of surviving an injury of that caliber are extremely low, yet no body was found. Tsukuda couldn't have gotten far in his state, unless-"

"-someone picked him up and threw him into a TV," finished Akihiko. He was catching on. "But why?"

"We know that Minazuki was kidnapping children for Tsukuda's experiments, in exchange for medications that implied he was ill from being unable to Summon. Tsukuda, according to Ikutsuki-san's videos, knows how to forcibly engender an Awakening."

She must have been taking too long to get to the point, because Kanji jumped in. "So we think Minazuki got pissed because the doc wouldn't help him, and he chucked him into the TV until he agreed."

Akihiko was coming back to life. "Except he can't. So he springs Adachi."

"Minazuki, familiar with Adachi's modus operandi, would know that it was possible for a Persona-user to put someone else into the TV World," ended Naoto.

"Labrys isn't going to like this," grumbled Akihiko, "That damn kid's more trouble than he's worth." After a moment, he realized something and declared, "You've got to take me with you."

"I really don't think that's a good idea," Naoto said just as Kanji also protested, "Not doin' that man, sorry."

"Naoto, I mean it! I don't give a shit if I don't have a Persona – I can still punch a guy out! You really think this is that much of a setback?"

She didn't. In addition to being an experienced Persona-user, Akihiko had years of real-world fighting experience that would make him an excellent officer. The trouble was, he also had a temper and a sore spot where Mitsuru was concerned. "You're too close to the case-"

"And you aren't? Don't tell me you don't want Adachi's ass mounted to your wall after everything he said. That's why he said it in the first place. He **does** piss you off – you're just too stubborn to admit it."

He was also fairly skilled at reading people.

"This ain't about Naoto!" Kanji was quick to step in with his own personal button firmly pushed. "This is about you tryin' to play hero for Mitsuru-san, like the last time you ran off and went Minazuki-huntin'."

Akihiko flinched. His solo mission wasn't the direct cause of Mitsuru's "death", but he more than likely blamed himself for it. He was indeed putting himself on the front line to make amends. If he got hurt, Mitsuru would surely blame **herself** for that. Was this what being a couple was all about? Joint guilt?

Naoto had one more option, and she was loathe to use it, but… "The decision isn't up to Kanji-kun or myself. We'll have to discuss it with Yu-senpai."

"Fine." Akihiko crushed several flowers under his shoe as if they were Tsukuda. "Fine. Sit on your hands. You've been a great help with all of your nothing. So we did this by ourselves, huh? Then we'll fix it ourselves." As he stormed off, he called back over his shoulder, "Let me know if Cosmic Cuckoo decides we need to do a rain dance or some shit."

They watched him leave and Naoto found herself wishing Yosuke would have met with him instead. "That went well," she quipped.

* * *

It was indeed raining in Iwatodai when Akihiko got back. Serves him right for opening his big mouth. Mitsuru was going to kill him.

No, she wasn't. That's what was so horrible. If Mitsuru found out he'd lost his temper and yelled at the kids, trying to sneak into a Shadow nest unarmed, she'd...bury her face in her pillow and cry because she probably blamed herself for all this. It always came down to that.

_I'm sorry. If it wasn't for Kirijo..._

But if it wasn't for Kirijo, he wouldn't be here now, on his way to the biggest house he'd ever set foot in. If it wasn't for Kirijo, he'd be working two jobs to pay off his _**high school**_ tuition – forget college! The good far outweighed the bad. He had to make Mitsuru see that somehow.

At least Kikuno seemed pleased to see him as she personally let him in. "Akihiko-san, good afternoon. Will you be staying? Would your like your protein shake?"

"You know what, Kikuno? Hold off on that for a bit." An idea had been rapidly forming in his head, and he needed to act before he realized how crazy it was. "Is she up?"

"Well...she's awake...I believe."

"Have a car standing by, okay?" This was an absolutely horrible idea, but it could work. With a great deal of suicidal overconfidence, Akihiko marched into Mitsuru's bedroom.

Mitsuru was slumped over in a window seat, watching the rain fall in a dressing gown that she must have fought the servants to let her keep because it was rattier than anything Akihiko had ever seen her wear. She didn't look up when Akihiko entered, not even caring if someone invaded her room without her permission. Years ago, he'd been threatened with execution even after knocking and announcing himself. Was it weird that he preferred the latter?

Well, if he was going to fix things, he'd better not waste any time. "Oh, good, you're up."

"Hmm?" Mitsuru suddenly noticed Akihiko wasn't a maid, but a man pulling her to her feet. "W-What!?"

"You know what I realized? We never once took you bowling. Can you believe that? I blame Shinji." It had just popped into his head. Get Mitsuru into an environment she'd never been in before, and her brain would start analyzing that – leaving no room for depression. Awaken her competitive side and she'd forget all about being "normal".

"...bowling?" Now she was looking at him like he had three heads.

"What, he never told you about the time I demolished three lanes because I overcompensated for the weight of the ball? The off-color jokes never stopped after that."

"Have you been drinking?"

They'd stopped in front of her three-bedroom closet. "No more moping. Get dressed." She balked, so Akihiko stepped out into the hall. "Hey, Kikuno?"

Kikuno looked like a kid on Christmas morning. "There's a car waiting for you outside. You're not wearing **that**, are you, Milady? Here."

The murderous look Mitsuru gave her had to be a good sign. "I pay you, Kikuno," she grumbled as Akihiko had to duck back out into the hall to avoid laughing in her face.

* * *

If you had asked Mitsuru how she'd planned to spend a rainy afternoon, "bowling with Akihiko" would not be her answer. Yet here she was, in a car with her aggravatingly animated friend, going who-knows-where when all she really wanted to do was sleep. But Akihiko insisted, and Akihiko had given up his afternoon as well just to coddle her once again. Guilt was the only emotion she would let herself feel.

Also, Akihiko smiling at her was churning her stomach strangely. He was so attentive that it called to mind all those nights they'd spent in the same bed, with Akihiko desperately trying to make her smile, too. At least he wasn't tickling her. Mitsuru would go along with whatever little distraction activity he had planned, but she was not in the mood for extraneous touching.

This bowling...building? Center? Club...certainly looked dubious from the outside; loud neon flashing signs promising fun entertainment. It reminded Mitsuru too much of the Harabah block of Tartarus – loud and disorienting, with enemies around every corner, waiting for her to turn her back so they could strike. She stuck to Akihiko like glue.

Akihiko read her mind somehow as he chuckled. "No Shadows here, hon. Just college students."

"It's raining," she whined instead.

"Oh, no, you'll melt!" mocked Akihiko. He dragged her into the building, unperturbed by all of the patrons staring at them. "Just try to be open-minded," he pleaded.

And Mitsuru did indeed try...until she realized that a machine was shooting shoes at her. "So...it's the same as high school?"

"Well, no student council or samurai, but yeah, there you go! See? You're fine! You can do school! C'mon, put the shoes on."

"...If you insist."

It certainly did feel like high school, where Mitsuru excelled in lessons, but failed to learn anything about the student body. Why was everything so alien to her? This was apparently something her peers engaged in often. She had one flashback after another to Yuki dragging her around town and being so patient while she stumbled over simple concepts such as eating ramen.

Everyone was so patient with her, and she simpered and sniffed like a cosseted little lap dog.

It was no wonder she had very few friends.

Mitsuru did not want a souvenir of her shame, but Akihiko continued to embarrass her as they sat down in front of a monitor displaying their faces. "What are you doing?"

"Hold still."

"No-don't take my picture, Akihiko!"

"C'mon, you look fine. Keep it up, and I'll put a stupid hat on you."

"What?" He wouldn't dare…would he?

She paused just long enough for Akihiko to hit a button, immortalizing her embarrassment for all to see. He then proceeded to festoon the photo with all manner of ridiculous graphics – including stupid hats.

"I fail to see how this relates to bowling," she said.

"It's supposed to be fun. You remember fun, right? That thing you killed every time you came back to the dorm."

"Well!" She huffed as Akihiko laughed, "I will have you know, Sanada, that I am just as capable of having..._fun_...as any person!" Oh, her dander was up now! He thought her incapable of fun? _**She would have the most fun ever attained in a bowling...**__**place.**_"Let's play."

She really should have seen the trap he set before she walked right into it. Akihiko was deliriously happy to see Mitsuru actively engaging him. That happiness faded, however, when she turned the tables and began to beat him soundly at a game she'd just learned how to play. It seemed he was telling the truth earlier when he said he'd had trouble reigning in his strength, because his accuracy was very poor and his aim was all over the aisle-err, lane, he said.

"Are you letting me win?" she asked after the fourth gutter ball. The people around them began laughing.

"No!" Akihiko insisted, pouting. It was rather adorable, really. "I said I'd bowled before – I never said I was any good at it!" He sat down by the screen and did a double take. "Did you change the picture?"

Akihiko's grinning face was now wearing a ghastly purple beard and the most ridiculous sunglasses she could find.

He also had a tail.

Mitsuru gave him her most innocent look. "No." The crowd laughed even harder.

Akihiko had that glint in his eye again, the one that said _I've been waiting for this! _"Oh, I see what this is," he said. "Game on, sweetheart." He honestly thought he'd win. "It's your turn." Little did he know, Mitsuru had been idly chatting with someone in another bowling alley about technique while he was busy missing. She was a very diligent student, after all.

Mitsuru got up, determined to shut Akihiko's mouth permanently when he suddenly called out, "You've gotten really good at handling those balls." The ball slipped out of her grasp and wobbled feebly into the gutter.

The look Mitsuru gave him could have shattered a diamond. Then a new idea hit her. "Oh, I'm sure you've had much more experience in that department," she retorted, which greatly pleased the audience. Akihiko's face was a thing of beauty. "Turn this way just a moment? There! _Parfait!_" A laugh escaped her. She couldn't help it. Was she legitimately having fun?

Two things happened that she was completely unprepared for. Akihiko's face was now shining like the sun, looking down at her as if she was the reason he was in orbit. He had tried very hard to make Mitsuru happy, and acknowledging he had done so was the best gift she could have given him. It made her feel...warm. Soft. Things she wasn't quite ready to feel just yet. She had to turn her head before her eyes gave too much away.

Adding the new picture to their gaming profile caused her pen pal to type, "Your boyfriend is cute! 3 How long have you been dating?" Oh, no. What if Akihiko saw that? What if he was insulted that she allowed people to jump to conclusions?

Before Akihiko could take his turn, Mitsuru leapt up and tried to keep him as far away from the computer as possible. "I cannot allow you to lose spectacularly. At least let me help you gain a few points."

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny." Akihiko consented...but he also assumed Mitsuru was taking the ball and let go a bit too soon. "AH! SHIT!" The ball slammed into his hand as he tried to catch it at the last second before it hit the ground and rolled off.

"Are you all right? Here, I-" She reached for his hand and…

What was she doing? She couldn't heal him! She could only stare at her useless hand, inches from his, the divide between them threatening to swallow them whole. How foolish of her to think she could ever reach him.

Akihiko knew his plan had failed. "It's getting late, and the crowd's starting to thin out. We should go." He was so disappointed in her! She had ruined everything once again.

Neither of them spoke on the way home, letting the rain fill in the silence. Not since Shinjiro's death had Mitsuru felt this useless to Akihiko. For months now she'd been dragging him down and monopolizing all of his time, a millstone he was too afraid to remove. She could never be what he wanted.

They were met at the door not by Kikuno, but a frantic Yukari. "Senpaiiii! You didn't answer any of my messages and I was getting worried, so I came by and Kikuno said you were…out…" She noticed Akihiko, and her eyes narrowed.

But it wasn't just Yukari. "Aw, see? She's fine." Iori was in her house as well? "She just went out with Akihiko-san!" He and the rest of their friends came out of the lounge as if they'd all been waiting for her. "Yuka-tan here's freaking out like you got kidnapped again or something!"

"I'm sorry. You've all dropped what you were doing to check on me, and I wasn't even in danger." Why did they remain? She had no authority over them anymore, no way of reprimanding them now that she was as weak as a kitten. They had no use for her anymore. No reason to obey anything she said now that she wasn't their leader. Even Amada could have overpowered her in this state.

"Well, you could have been," Yukari insisted, still angry at Mitsuru for Yuki, no doubt.

"Look, it was my fault, all right?" Akihiko, who had lost more time to Mitsuru's moping than anyone else, whose life she had now irrevocably ruined by injuring his hand, was willing to shoulder the blame for her. Again. "I couldn't just leave her here like this. That's not gonna get our Personas back."

"I'm not seeing how going on a date is helping," said Yukari.

But Mitsuru had just detected something in Akihiko's tone. "What do you know that you aren't telling me?"

"Have you looked at your phone lately? Other than Yukari freaking out, there should be a million messages from Naoto." Shirogane? Mitsuru had meant to apologize for leaving the girl to face the police on her behalf, but she feared a lecture – and probably deserved one. Finally retrieving her phone revealed that yes, she had been overrun with messages from both Yukari and Shirogane.

"Naoto-san has information about our missing Personas?" Koromaru-through-Aigis asked.

"If by 'information', you mean 'supernatural mumbo-jumbo', but yeah. Remember that mismatched girl with the mood swings? The one who's like a...Metis-part of some goddess?"

"Oh, Marie, the one that does all the yellin'," said Labrys. "She ain't human? Huh…"

"According to her, we brought this on ourselves with all the infighting." Akihiko did not look entirely convinced. "Of course, this information comes second-hand from the Blue Brigade of weirdos who are equally unhelpful."

"Those people from the Velvet Room who work for Igor-san," said Aigis. That's right; she had become a Wild Card during the time loop while SEES had been trapped in their dorm. Metis had been Aigis' emotions personified.

Yamagishi had been so quiet, one couldn't fault Mitsuru for forgetting she was there – but she now spoke up. "They **did** try to warn us about something," she remembered, "Our…our bonds were in danger."

"That they did." Mitsuru decided not to remind them that she'd blown off their concerns as unnecessary. "Funny you should mention Metis – we've completely forgotten everything she'd reminded us of." She was just as ashamed of her actions now as she was then. How embarrassing that she was unable to keep the group from splintering off, the way an actual leader would. She'd compromised her own ideals to back Yukari because that what she felt a friend should do. Had they won the keys, Yuki would have returned to them...but the world would be a very different place because of it. How foolish she'd been.

"Are you suggesting that if we work out our differences, our Personas might return to us?" asked Amada.

Akihiko seemed less confident now. "Well, if anyone else has a better idea, now's the time to share it." Such a simple thing couldn't possibly work, could it? Awakening to her Persona the first time was so traumatizing, the end result of long, grueling, painful trials. Would talking through their problems really help?

But Akihiko had tried. He'd taken the initiative, the way she'd wanted him to. He was always proactive where she was reactive, and though she gave him grief for it, it was leagues better than what she'd been doing. Clearly, Artemisia was not moved enough by her tears to appear again.

"Yeah, let's all date! Oh, wait, we're all busy, remember?" _Yukari, do you have to do this?_ Her best friend's knee-jerk reaction had been the very thing that started this entire catastrophe. They all had feelings that were unaddressed, and leaving them for so long had caused them to explode at the worst possible time. Why not talk them out for once?

It was Mitsuru's turn to act. "Perhaps we could all get together later? It's been quite a while since we've had a proper party, and Amada's birthday is approaching, if I recall correctly."

"Oh, that's not necessary, Mitsuru-san," Amada began protesting.

"No, I insist. You've never been to Yakushima, have you?" Even Yukari should have been swayed at the mention of the Kirijo vacation home. They'd been so innocent then, a group of teenagers playing on the beach together and truly getting to know one another. Perhaps that was when they'd truly begun to bond as companions.

"Another free Senpai vacation?" Iori could always be counted on to get to the point. "Hell yeah! I'm in!"

Yamagishi seconded it. "I've missed spending time with you all."

"Then it's settled. I'll make the arrangements." Mitsuru was beginning to feel better than she had in weeks. Things were never so hopeless when one had friends. "Thank you, everyone, for coming over so quickly. I do appreciate it, truly." Hopefully, her smile was enough to convince everyone. It didn't feel very convincing on her end. While a great weight had been lifted off Mitsuru's shoulders, it had since been dropped right on her foot. How was she going to explain everything to Yukari and the others? She still didn't understand things herself!

As the Operatives began leaving until only robots remained, Labrys approached her. "Didja have fun, though?"

"Labrys?"

"On ya date, I mean."

Had she? Akihiko had been right; she'd forgotten about her troubles while learning to bowl. Spending time with him outside of work was different, but in a good way. Even the teasing had been enjoyable. They always egged each other on in battle, encouraging each other to perform to their true potential while carrying on their unspoken competition. It reminded her why she had begun to admire Akihiko in the first place. He was smart, he was funny, he was kind. He did all of this to help her. "I suppose that I did, yes." A thought occurred to her as a real smile made its way onto her face. "Please excuse me."

Akihiko left the mansion feeling a bit better, but still kind of uneasy. Mitsuru had taken to his idea, but the others saw it for how weak it really was. Would "sharing their feelings" like a sappy chick flick really do anything?

When his phone went off, he assumed Mitsuru was calling the whole thing off because she knew it was stupid. The message he got instead nearly caused him to drop his phone.

I realize I never thanked you for this afternoon.

Perhaps I could choose the venue next time?

He sent back _What did you have in mind?_

You'll see.

Well, **that** wasn't ominous or anything. He was in the middle of sending another reply when he realized something and dropped his phone for real.

Mitsuru had just asked for a second date.

* * *

\- ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp -

...I think I just invented cockroachblocking.

I hope the bowling info is still right; I watched a video that was kind of old. The few times I've been bowling in America were much different.

No love for Disco Block with its irritating spiral staircases. I want to go UP, not talk to Junpei bout Kirijo building a convenience store in here again! If you clowns would just follow me in a straight line, we wouldn't have this problem! Seriously, we get into Tartarus and even the senpai are going, "Serpentine!"


	11. Smolder

The first of the OCs that will be important later on!

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* * *

It wasn't as if he _hated_ the idea of dating Mitsuru. Far from it, in fact. But Akihiko found himself slightly terrified of what she had meant by "You'll see." Was this revenge? Just what was she planning? He thought she had enjoyed herself until she suddenly didn't.

His hand still hurt a little, which wasn't good when his hands were his whole career. He'd tried putting some ice on it until the irony reached him. Poor Mitsuru. They'd gotten so used to healing each other that it'd become a reflex for her. The look on her face when she remembered she couldn't...

They had to do something about their Personas, and FAST.

Work had kept Akihiko busy for the past few days, and he was still grateful for the distraction. He was beginning to see why Kurosawa was perpetually grumpy, though. Why were petty crooks so damn stupid? Of course the cops are gonna chase you if you run! And if you were as innocent as you claimed, why did you run in the first place? He was still grumbling over this when Mitsuru called him out of the blue.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," she began.

"Please, interrupt away!" he replied, "Tell me you need to send me somewhere!"

"Unfortunately, no," chuckled Mitsuru. _Thanks for laughing at my anguish. Wait…you laughed? _He wasn't even trying to make her laugh this time! "It's just...well…" A hesitant Mitsuru was also very unusual. When she resumed speaking, it was at a very fast clip. "I-was-wondering-if-you'd-like-to-accompany-me-to-an-event-I-have-to-attend!" She then moved the phone away from her mouth, but Akihiko could swear he heard her sigh in relief.

"Yeah. Sure, why not? What kinda event?"

Mitsuru was silent for a few minutes, so she clearly hadn't prepared herself for what to do if he said yes – which was a little insulting, if he was being honest. He never said no to Mitsuru! Besides, they already agreed she'd pick the location of their next date!

She came back again speaking slower this time. "There's...this...charity event?" _Are you sure? _"I've meant to attend for years to support a friend of mine, except…"

Akihiko smirked. "You need a date?"

He imagined Mitsuru's brow furrowing. "There are no silly hats, if that's what you were wondering."

"Oh, that's too bad."

A sharp intake of air meant he'd gone too far. "It **is** a ball however, so I'm curious to see how well you'll handle this one."

"All right, hon, I'm sorry. Just let me know what day it is and I'll make sure I'm off."

"This Thursday. I suppose I should apologize in advance for how...madcap the evening may be."

"Say what?"

"Never mind! Forget I said anything!" Mitsuru blurted out. "Thank you!" And she hung up.

Akihiko made sure no one was around him before doubling over with laughter. This absurdly powerful businesswoman who dealt with executives by day and vanquished Shadows by night had to psych herself up to ask someone on a date. God, he loved her.

* * *

By Thursday, Akihiko may have been just as nervous. A full suit had arrived for him with a note that said Mitsuru would follow in a few hours. She **did** say that this was a ball. Was he expected to dance? He danced about as well as he bowled! Well, he couldn't chicken out now. He dressed and swallowed at least a dozen butterflies before the limo pulled up and then he nearly puked them back up when he got a good look at Mitsuru.

It wasn't a cake, but her dress tonight still left his stomach growling. He could have sworn she'd gotten her Persona back because it gleamed like a sheet of ice. She'd always been beautiful, but lately, her ability to stop time and clear the entire planet of other people for him had been working overtime.

_Why do you do this to me?_

Mitsuru, on the other hand, did not seem to be trapped in the Dork Hour. "I apologize if we're a little late," she said shyly, "It seems as if some small part of me still wants to avoid this gathering."

"Yeah, you mentioned there was something up about this ball thing. What, is it a dance contest, or…?"

"It's not that." She fiddled with an unused seat belt. "Most of the guests attending this ball, are...well...men that were trying to marry me."

WHAT.

Either he'd said that out loud without meaning to, or Mitsuru was just that good at reading his face, because she flinched. "I've refused them all!" she insisted. "After Father's death, they began swarming like vultures, many of them from smaller companies who'd smelled blood. Now that Public Safety has begun challenging me, they've returned with a vengeance and I am running out of reasons to remain single."

Once again, Akihiko hadn't been aware of any of this. He was beginning to wonder if he'd ever known Mitsuru at all. Not only had she been dating Makoto, she was also fending off older guys at the same time? Did Makoto know about this? Was that why she was dating him?

"It's not as complicated as you're imagining," Mitsuru teased, reminding him to never take up poker as a hobby.

"So why even go?" he asked instead. _In a dress like __**that?**_

"I still have to do business with these people. The raid removed nearly a third of the Group's affiliates, and we've been hemorrhaging public support since May. Avoiding executive functions would make it seem as if I truly had something nefarious to hide." She stopped suddenly and looked confused. "**Now** what are you thinking?"

Akihiko wore a wistful smile. "You sound normal."

"I…"

Mitsuru had begun talking about business with the same commanding attitude she'd always had. Akihiko never understood much of it, but he understood that Mitsuru knew her shit, and it showed. She sounded confident and assured, something he had feared he would never hear again.

They didn't have a chance to discuss it any further, because the limo was approaching one of the imposing buildings Akihiko usually paid no mind to as he rode the monorail to school. With the opportunity to look at them now, he noted just how many of them had gleaming solar panels and spotless windows, causing them to reflect one another and make a pedestrian feel as if they were being swallowed up by skyscrapers. He was in his home city, yet he felt like he'd touched down on a hostile alien planet. The ground swallowed the car and they found themselves in a cavernous parking garage. Was this still Japan?

Mitsuru turned on the attitude while among elevator attendants and staff, but it caused her to fidget when they were alone. She'd been prepping herself for this party, and it looked like she only had a limited amount for tonight and was using it sparingly. Akihiko began trying to memorize the route out of here in case they had to make a quick getaway.

The elevator opened up to another one of those glittering party floors, filled with overpriced outfits and shorter people somehow looking down on him. A nearby man turned towards them – at least, he appeared to be a man, but he let out a positively girly squeal when he saw Mitsuru.

"EEEEE! You're back you're back you're BA-ACK!" Some of the other guests began tittering.

Mitsuru only barely reacted to this. "Yoshi, no," she admonished.

"Mitsu-Mitsu! Ohh, my soirée sister! It's been soooo boring without you!" The man pranced over to them. He must have been about their age, but he acted much younger, kind of like Teddie Teddie. "You need to stop abandoning _moi_ at these executive dysfunctions, _Rouge__ll__e._"He leaned closer, only to dramatically stage whisper, "_These people are __**insane!**_"

Mitsuru – Akihiko couldn't possibly be imagining it – actually relaxed. "I apologize for my absence, but you seem to be holding up well, all things considered." He relaxed as well. This was a friend. A **weird** friend, but still...Mitsuru had friends when he and the others weren't around. "Also, I'm sorry that someone conveniently left you off the guest list for my birthday party – although you didn't miss much."

"I wouldn't have minded being led off in handcuffs!" laughed Yoshi. He finally noticed Akihiko with an exaggerated gasp. "Speaking of!"

Mitsuru chuckled and put on her "the juniors are doing something stupid" voice. "Yes, allow me to introduce you to Akihiko Sanada."

"The infamous Officer Protein?" Yoshi looked like he'd seen a rainbow made of glitter.

"You've been talking about me?" That was strange. He didn't think Mitsuru would want to admit in front of this kind of crowd that she hung out with poor people. "I hope it wasn't all bad."

"_Au contraire_, handsome! Our girl's been going on and on and on about how you're just so-"

"**Yoshi!**" Mitsuru managed to turn purple somehow.

"I kid! I kid, 'cause I love you! Now, make your debut. I can't wait to see their faces when you saunter in with **this** morsel!" Yoshi danced away, acting oblivious to the uncomfortable situation he'd just put them in. They could see him accosting other guests, who had way less patience for him.

Mitsuru looked after him fondly, with a look she'd usually reserved for Akihiko and Shinjiro being themselves in front of her. "Yoshi and I are generally the youngest guests at these soirées, and the only thing making them tolerable for either of us."

"Well, at least **he** won't try to marry you," Akihiko joked.

"Funny you should say that, because that's actually how we met." The man in question was dancing to the chamber music in the most inappropriate way he could think of. "His uncle is the head of an up-and-coming plastics company trying to both secure a place for itself through any means necessary, and stave off any potential scandals."

"You said no, though." Mitsuru was definitely the best choice for shit like that...but no one should be forced to marry someone they didn't love. The kid loved Mitsuru – but he obviously didn't "love" Mitsuru.

"He's delightfully irreverent the way he is. Why would I ever want to change that?" They watched as Yoshi stood behind snotty-looking people and made silent commentary back to them, pulling goofy faces for their benefit. "I'd have gone stark-raving mad years ago if it wasn't for Yoshi putting things in perspective." She laughed at his lack of his poker face again. "I suppose you've realized you don't know me as well as you assumed you did?"

Akihiko could only shake his head. "After all these years, you still continue to amaze me." No wonder Marin Karin never worked against Shadows – Mitsuru was already charming everyone around her wherever she went.

"Ooh!" Yoshi had snuck up behind them unnoticed. "The man is smoother than silk! If you don't 'dance' with him, Red, I. Just. Might. Now, go on, ladies and gentlemen first! Shoo!"

Whoa, what the fuck…

...did he just try to smack BOTH their asses?

* * *

Now that they'd seen Yoshi, Mitsuru wanted to consider the evening a success and just run back to the car as fast as these dainty impractical shoes could carry her. Unfortunately, duty called, and would continue calling even if she left the phone off the hook. Her contemporaries demanded her presence, and she couldn't afford to tell them that she was through with their narrow universe and the attitude their ancestors' money fueled. She needed to hide her weakness.

If only her weakness wasn't currently providing his arm.

Akihiko was content to let her lead, trying his best to look as if he belonged there and wasn't out of his depth. He cut a very impressive figure in his suit, meaning there were many eyes upon him. The other guests were **not** subtle in their gossiping about who Mitsuru's mystery date actually was. They were so eager to catch him out that it made her sick. How could you despise your fellow man so, especially when he was instrumental in saving the world for you? Akihiko had paid his dues. He had clawed his way out of the wreckage of his past with his own two hands, and could surely make a name for himself even without Mitsuru's help. He was a good man: loyal and just, with morals that would not be compromised. He had known real poverty and heartache, but never used them as excuses for his actions. Not even losing his Persona had stopped him from continuing on. Was that not admirable enough?

_It is for me._

"You want to leave already?" He knew. Akihiko read her like a book, and half the time, she enjoyed that. It made communicating in battle almost effortless. Did he see this as a battle as well?

"Still analyzing," she replied, which made him chuckle the way she'd always liked. He was not afraid. He was awaiting her orders. They'd always been the perfect team...she'd just forgotten.

Mitsuru's gaze swept over the party guests, calculating who to greet and who to avoid, when she came upon an enemy who would do more damage to her than The Reaper. _No! No, no, why is he here?!_

Three years later, the man the Kirijo Group chose for Mitsuru to marry still made her feel like that child strapped to a gurney, his oily smugness a film on the water Mitsuru was slowly sinking into. She never wanted to see his face again. Told him as much when he threatened Yuki. She thought she'd dismantled enough of his grandfather's company to keep him busy for a while. Public Safety must have unearthed him to make use of the scandal.

"Honey?" Akihiko noticed she'd dropped his arm and her breathing was shallow.

"_Mon analyse_ resulted in failure," was all she could gasp out.

"Well!" Mitsuru's ex-fiance oozed his way over to them like a low-level Shadow, nose firmly in the air. "Look who has decided to show her pretty little face. Funny meeting you here, Mitsuru!" A very young girl who spent quite a bit of money to look cheap hung off his arm, doused in more than enough perfume for every woman in the room and then some.

"I don't find it amusing in the slightest." Mitsuru knew she was scowling, and Akihiko would no doubt pick up on that and react accordingly, but she couldn't control her own visceral reaction to someone so vile. If he was callous enough to mention Yuki...

"I don't suppose you know anything about my company hitting a few snags?"

"You've never supposed that I knew anything, Shiro, which was your first mistake." Beside her, Akihiko tensed, but Mitsuru took hold of his arm again. "If your grandfather is facing difficulty with **his** company, perhaps you should be publicly supporting him. I'm sure he would be more than happy to leave you exactly what you deserve upon his death."

There was nothing Shiro could say to counteract that, so he naturally chose to snark back. "I see you still haven't learned to hold your tongue. No wonder you're not married."

His arm candy tittered at that. She'd been eyeing Akihiko, but since Akihiko was watching Mitsuru, her come hither glances went ignored, and that frustrated her. "Aren't you getting old? Better hurry!" She must have been barely out of school herself. Shiro liked them young. "Shi-kun, let's go. I wanna ride in the Lambog...Lamg...you said I could drive your shiny new car!" Well, that would have killed any attraction Akihiko might have had towards her. He'd always come home fuming over being harassed by girls with this same nature.

"**Did I tell you to speak?**"

"No, Shi-kun."

"And quit calling me that!"

Neither Mitsuru nor Akihiko could help but bristle at the exchange. The man was still trying to find a wife he could browbeat into submission. _You get what you pay for, after all – and Shiro always was incredibly cheap. _It warmed her heart, however, to see Akihiko glare **hard** at Shiro for his attitude. By now, he may have put two and two together and realized why they were stonewalling this man.

"Not going to introduce me to your date?" sneered Shiro. Sizing Akihiko up proved to be more difficult than he'd anticipated once he'd realized Akihiko would not be easily intimidated. Akihiko's silence was not an order, but an acknowledgment that he would follow her lead.

Mitsuru opened her mouth not quite certain how she was going to answer.

_He's just a friend...or should I say, teammate...I can't seem to find the correct word to describe him. __Regardless,__ that is the extent of our relationship._

Even today, none of those words seemed to do.

What was Akihiko to her now?

"Akihiko is a dear friend, and my most trusted associate," Mitsuru said simply, deliberately leaving off his surname because Shiro had an Aigis-level database of names to know and who to schmooze with. "I asked him to accompany me tonight because I was confident that he wouldn't embarrass me."

Akihiko relaxed slightly. "I even get to speak," he added.

With classic timing, Yoshi parted the crowd like a sea (in reality, the partygoers recoiled from being next to him) and came to Mitsuru's aid as he often did. With Akihiko on her other side, it bore a heartbreaking resemblance to attending school with Shinjiro. Both boys always accompanied her, scaring off gropers and gossipers alike while Mitsuru made it very clear they were under her legal protection. The empress was never without her white knights.

Today she was flanked by one white knight and one harlequin who was laying it on very, **very** thick.

"Awwwkwaaaard!" Yoshi sang out. "Past and Future are both present! Wait for me, Alternate Universe!"

It took her a moment, but she got the joke. Hopefully, the blush rapidly spreading across her face was unnoticed by Yoshi, who tried to throw an arm around Shiro only to receive a withering glare, Shiro, who was too busy sneering at Yoshi to get the joke, and his date, giggling like Amagi at his behavior.

Akihiko appeared to have also gotten the joke. Now there was no denying Mitsuru's face – and his as well – was bright red.

"Yoshi, I appreciate you conducting reconnaissance for me this evening. It's always good to know who else is attending these parties."At least one person should have been aware this bastard would be here. Had she known, they never would have bothered coming. _Why the hell didn't you tell me about him?! _

Yoshi knew he was in disgrace, but played it off fairly well. "When you promised your pretty face, doll, the world took notice! There are people here I could have sworn were dead! They might actually BE dead, come to think of it – but they threw open their tombs for a chance to greet Your Royal Redness!" The look on his face told her all she needed to know. _He showed up when he heard __that __you would. _

"I see. In that case, I suppose it would be very impolite of me to ignore their resurrections. If you'll excuse us," Mitsuru announced, more for Shiro's benefit than Yoshi's. They had to get as far away from the man as possible before one of them punched him in the face – and it might not necessarily be Akihiko.

Blessedly, the rest of the guests seemed more amenable to Akihiko and more interested in Mitsuru above all else. She only had to field personal questions about him twice. Akihiko was – as expected – charming and intuitive, knowing when to chip in and when to defer to Mitsuru. He was every bit the loyal, devoted date...and it was killing her inside. Everything was too perfect. They moved in sync and communicated without words. Most of the people watching probably thought they'd been dating for several years, their actions implying a well-earned level of intimacy.

What was he thinking, agreeing to this? Did he realize that the business world had now jumped on the same train the Gekkoukan student body had been on, assuming they were a couple? What if word got out to the police department? The boxing circuit? Was he all right with everyone thinking Mitsuru was his girlfriend?

Why did she suddenly fear his reply?

* * *

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If you killed the Shadows before Mitsuru could finish analyzing them (which could be often), this is the message you'd get. And if you take Mitsuru out for takoyaki and ask her, "Are you in love?" when she starts talking about Akihiko, that's the noncommittal answer she gives.

Yoshi was conceived as a character who was very different from Akihiko, but with a similar goal: look out for Mitsuru. If he can't be there, Akihiko would be glad to see that someone helps her out when she's overwhelmed or feeling alone among all these stuffy rich people. It's also a surprise to him (and the others) that Mitsuru actually has friends other than them. We don't see much of her life without Personas.


	12. Engender

OC #2!

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* * *

"Yu, you got a second?"

Domesticity in Inaba was weird.

Not that being in Inaba itself wasn't weird enough. Dojima and Yu's parents had mostly cooled down about his unplanned vacation, but one of the requirements was that he had to attend school while he was there. Yasogami found it weird as well, but since Yu's records were spotless, and he'd had the best GPA in the second-year class, they decided it made for good press.

No, the weirdest thing ever was having Dojima at breakfast. Last year, he'd been out the door before Yu was even awake, leaving the kids to fend for themselves. Sometimes it didn't even look like he'd had coffee before diving into work. It was great that he was trying to keep his promise to Nanako...but it was painfully obvious that he had no idea what he was doing.

"What's up?"

"First off, I want to say that it's great having you here again." _Oh, this can't be good._ "Nanako really appreciates you helping out, and so do I. I know you're probably busy reconnecting with all of your friends…" _But?_ "but could I get you to do me a favor?"

Yu knew he was on thin ice with his authority figures, and that Dojima had the power to send him straight home if he so much as put a toe out of line. It did nothing to stop the endless flashbacks to last year's disappointing Golden Week, and the dread washing over him.

"-won't be long, I promise. I wanted to get out of it, but the chief seems to think I'm 'forgetting the bigger picture', and he wants to make an example of me. He's not exactly proud of how the department looks these days."

He was really doing it. He was really leaving Nanako home alone while a killer was on the loose. _**Again. **_

"-something about a bonus, which I can't say would be unwelcome. Nanako's been asking about a new piano, the car needs a tune-up…"

Yu tuned him out before he failed to resist the urge to grab the man by the collar and shake him vigorously. He pictured Nanako's little face, so happy to have her family together and whole again, crestfallen that her father had almost immediately fallen back into his own patterns. _Why are you wasting your family? _

For as long as Yu could remember, he'd been a family of one with two roommates that vaguely resembled him. By the time he was Nanako's age, he was wishing on birthday candles and Tanabata tags for a **real** family, one that did things together and weren't in such a hurry to get away from one another. He'd never expected to find one until he was sent to Inaba. Now he had a real, working, caring family – and it was imploding upon itself!

"-pointing out how I really can't afford to lose this job. Isn't that nice of him? I'd been putting him off, but he came back with this one last proposal...and hey, the timing's right-"

"Thanks to Adachi."

Shit, he shouldn't have said that out loud.

Dojima actually stopped talking and stood there, stunned, before the shock wore off and he formed a counterargument. "Yu, I can't afford to lose my job."

"But you can afford to lose your family? Nanako's never going to forgive you."

"That's pretty rich, coming from the guy who left his own family!"

"Yeah, but now I'm back."

Again, Dojima was speechless.

"I need to get to school." _I need to avoid throttling you. _"I gave my word I'd behave, and I'm keeping it."

Dojima's jaw was tense, but he still gritted out, "Have a good day," before Yu practically slammed the door in his face.

Were Persona-users just magnets for heartache?

Another surprise enthusiastically greeted Yu once he arrived at school.

"Sensei! Er...hello, fellow student." Teddie stood proudly with the rest of the group, in what must have been Yosuke's old uniform, pitching his voice deeper but still visibly brimming with bounciness. "Care to join me for some beary important learning?"

It took Yu a full minute before he could form a coherent thought, and that thought was: "Okay, I've really got to stop eating Nanako's science projects."

"I'm going to school, too!" Sparkles looked really weird with the uniform. "I was sooooo bored at Junes waiting for all of you to come home from school, so now I get to hang out with the humans!"

"Dad said he was causing too much trouble, so he needs him out of his hair," Yosuke translated.

"And there are so many beautiful ladies here! I hope I have time to score with all of them!"

"Let's hope Kashiwagi's not his homeroom teacher," said Chie.

"So! When's lunch?"

"Teddie, you just got here! You need to go to class and be an actual student-HEY, PUT THAT AWAY!" Yosuke was trying to explain school to Teddie when he pulled a Topsicle out of nowhere and began dripping. "We don't eat Topsicles at school! C'mon, we're gonna be late."

"No...Topsicles?" Teddie was aghast. "School is **awful**!"

Well, now the Investigation Team could rendezvous a bit faster.

Yu allowed the others to lead the conversation as they dropped Teddie off at his classroom, and went about his day lost in thought. Dojima was removing himself from the picture...which meant they were saving Inaba on their own again. The Shadow Operatives couldn't even help them. Everything rested on his shoulders. _Is this how Mitsuru-san always feels?_

A voice from deep within took it upon themselves to answer him. _**You are never as alone as you think you are.**_

Izanagi was right. Yu understood now that, even without a Persona, he would always have his bonds he'd worked so hard to maintain. His friends. They would get through this together.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Iwatodai, the Operatives had gone their separate ways...in spite of Akihiko trying to unite them.

He and Mitsuru were cursed to never have a successful date. He really **had** tried to make himself presentable to avoid embarrassing her. It actually looked like things would be okay for a while. How was he supposed to know she had ex-fiancés, some of whom were pricks? Hey, at least he didn't sock the guy!

Mitsuru didn't seem angry at him, just...resigned. As if she knew they were doomed. She spoke to him more these days, but there was always something missing, as if she was just going through the motions. It killed him because in spite of everything, he still wanted to see her. He'd gotten his foot in the door and somehow, it hadn't been slammed on his toes. He couldn't get their Personas back...but he could at least make life without them more bearable.

When another opportunity presented itself, he leapt at the chance.

"I...suppose I am not that busy." With no Shadow Ops cases to spend time on, they all expected Mitsuru to throw herself into Kirijo work, to have something to do besides dwell on the emptiness. Work wasn't coming, however, and so she just lingered around the house like a ghost until someone tried to contact her. All this time to think wasn't good for her, so Akihiko and Kikuno had been working overtime (in addition to Akihiko's already full-time job) to get her moving, keep her occupied. She'd die if she stopped moving. Like a shark.

"C'mon, my turn this time." It was really presumptuous of Akihiko to assume she wanted to keep dating him, but she wasn't strong enough to realize yet that she could say no. He wanted to keep an eye on her and help her adjust to the possibility that this was her new "normal". Plus, a tiny part of him hoped that she enjoyed being around him just a bit. "Dave leaves in a few days, and I've talked you up so much he doesn't think you even exist." He hadn't intended on making any friends in college, but he'd forgotten how much fun just hanging out and being guys had been. It made sitting through endless courses almost bearable. "He actually thought I was dating Aigis, the way she kept hounding me."

At least that brought a slight smile to Mitsuru's face. "I'm afraid I won't be able to live up to the legend you've created," she said.

"Sure you will!"

With her first excuse shot down, Mitsuru continued to waffle. "So, his name is...Dave? Just Dave?"

"Oh, no, you don't. You need to be more personable. Quit making people feel like they're in the military. Dave's American; keeps thinking he's in trouble when people start surnaming him."

"Yes, but-"

"Is it really that hard? Aren't they more casual in France?"

Mitsuru frowned. "Since when have you been to France?"

"Okay, we'll go there next! Just **please** let me show you off to Dave, honey, just this once?"

It was a dirty move, and he felt bad for pulling it, but Mitsuru's face softened and she finally agreed. "Do you want to take the bike?"

Bringing Mitsuru to a tourist-trap bar was probably a bad idea, but places outside of Tokyo with English-speaking staff were rare. Dave had a mouth that opened at its own will and was liable to get him into trouble in more authentic spots, so he never managed to live like a local, even though he'd been going to college here for over two years. Even now, he stuck out like a sore thumb, sitting there wearing a loud t-shirt and jeans. Most of the patrons were giving him a wide berth, but there were some punks in the back corner who seemed to be enjoying the free show, making jokes they assumed he couldn't understand.

"Hey, Rock!" he called out when Akihiko and Mitsuru had gotten in his line of vision, but far away enough to warrant shouting. "Didja find your dream girl-" He stopped short at the sight of an understandably confused Mitsuru, the smirk melting off his face. "_**HEL**__LO_, you are gorgeous! What's he blackmailing you with?"

The punks in the back were split between laughing at Dave and also ogling Mitsuru, so Akihiko took them all out with one move; wrapping an arm around Mitsuru and bringing her forward. "Very funny," he said in English, figuring his slow and methodical style of speaking would get the point across. Still, he was unable to keep the pride out of his voice when he added, "This is Mitsuru. Mitsuru, this joker is my buddy Dave."

Mitsuru's English was much smoother – and he'd forgotten how much she actually knew. "It's a pleasure to meet you...David." _Oh, you little shit. _

Dave, to his credit, laughed. "Oh, no, the pleasure's all mine! I was beginning to think you didn't actually exist – or you lived in Canada or something." At least half of his jokes failed to hit, and this seemed to be one of them. "Rock here would not-so-subtly bring you up every five minutes or so – if he wasn't talking about protein. Once he actually said something about you **and** protein in the same sen-"

"Did you want a drink?" Akihiko quickly cut Dave off before he could sentence him to an execution he didn't even know existed. Why did he want to introduce this clown to Mitsuru again? He took a gamble and assumed his lack of Japanese had left him stranded there waiting for them. Indeed, the rest of the bar had turned frosty even without Mitsuru's help when it became clear they were all going to speak English the whole time. He distinctly heard several people hiss "gaijin", and at least one still leering at Mitsuru: "such a pretty little mouth speaking that vulgar language."

He knew Mitsuru'd heard them, too, but she was still trying. "How are you finding Japan?"

"There's a lotta squid." Oh, man. Akihiko had heard this story, but he wanted to see how Mitsuru reacted to it. "Dried squid. Jellied squid. Pickled squid. Candied squid! Why is their squid in your potato chips? _WHY IS THEIR SQUID IN YOUR ICE CREAM!? __So much squid…" _As Akihiko plunked a glass down in front of him, he squinted at it. "There's no squid in this, is there?"

"Oh, is that what you wanted? Sorry! Here, lemme-"

"God dammit, Rock, no!" Dave sputtered, and Akihiko laughed so hard he nearly spilled the green tea/fruity mixed drink he spent minutes agonizing over before finally getting for Mitsuru. This was not a wine establishment, and Mitsuru was not a beer girl, but she may have wanted something else to look at if the conversation went south.

As he passed her the drink, Mitsuru took a moment to stare at Akihiko quizzically. Why does he keep calling you a rock? she asked in Japanese.

Long story, he replied, Kind of funny, though. "So, Dave here," he began in English once more, "got lost his first day on campus and ends up looking for Calculus in the gym where I was training."

"Not my finest moment," Dave added. "So there's this guy, whaling away on a punching bag like it owed him money...and the first thing that comes out of my mouth is, 'You should try a side of beef next, Rocky!'" Mitsuru just stared at him. "Yeah, that's the look I'd gotten used to seeing – except hey, found a guy who speaks English enough to ask me what the hell I was talking about!"

Mitsuru chose the most Mitsuru-like part to focus on. "Yes, but...did you ever make it to Calculus?"

"Uh...no," Dave looked sheepish. "But can you believe this guy hasn't seen THE boxing movie, the one everyone quotes? I thought that was required viewing!"

Mitsuru still looked politely confused, so Akihiko added, "The movie's **called** 'Rocky', if you were wondering."

"Ah."

"Aigis has no idea why my English grades went up so fast." Akihiko happily punched the air.

"I'm no good with names, so it helps me to remember his: Rocky...Rockihiko...Akihiko! He's the only reason I **have** a Japanese grade – and haven't died of an allergic reaction to shrimp."

The punks were getting restless behind them, but Dave didn't seem to notice. Akihiko wished he'd brought the badge he really wasn't supposed to have. Kurosawa broke at least three different policies by letting him pretend to be an undercover cop, in order to lure out shady criminals and make them think they were about to be arrested unless they ratted out their buddies. Akihiko had enjoyed the dangerous work...until he ran into a guy who lived across the hall from him in the orphanage and reality saw fit to sock him in the jaw. That could have easily been him. This sad future was all you had, if you were an orphan. Without a Kirijo Group to take an interest in you, you'd just age out of the system and be forced to fend for yourself. False, one-sided camaraderie was your only family.

He'd zoned out while Mitsuru was vainly trying to install the importance of education into an incompatible Dave, who continued to misread the room with, "In America, they...well, it's not like that in America…" A few of the punks actually got up and left, they were so disgusted.

"But yeah, it's going to be weird going back. There's like a 16-hour time difference – I might get back before I even left!"

"Not exactly possible, but I know the feeling," Mitsuru commiserated. "Set your watch to your destination instead. You'll adjust to the time difference much faster."

"Damn, you really are smart! I mean, Rock said as much, but wow…"

"She made it to Calculus," Akihiko couldn't help but joke.

"No shit! You wouldn't happen to have a sister, would you?"

Amazingly, Mitsuru smiled. "Unfortunately, no." She actually seemed to be enjoying herself. Akihiko was one of the few people that knew her standoffishness was really a door and not an impenetrable wall like it seemed. She never made friends because most of the people that approached her only wanted something superficial from her. Personas had been a life-saver.

Dave's phone went off, and he winced as if he'd been hit. "And somehow my mom knows when I'm trolling for girls. Ugh. I'd better call her back." He excused himself and headed to the door. From what Akihiko knew of Dave's mother, she seemed a bit overbearing, but she loved her son. That must have been nice.

Akihiko was about to relax until he saw a few more punks suddenly decide to leave. The trouble was, there was only one way out of the bar, and Dave had gone that way, too…

Mitsuru noticed his frown and misunderstood. "I **did** try," she began.

"Wh-oh, no, you were great! Dave can be a bit of a handful, but I think he likes you. It's just...did you see how many guys were in here when we came in?"

"Quite a few. I'm certain that they saw me, as well."

Akihiko looked at the counter and began to panic slightly. "None of them finished their beers." Sure enough, shouting could be heard from outside. "Shit...!"

The gang had gotten the drop on Dave as he tuned out his surroundings, and he was outnumbered and clueless as to what they were shouting at him while they punched him.

"Otaku trash!"

"Go back to your _president_, America!"

"Not so tough without your _bombs_ and your _guns_, huh?"

As a cop, Akihiko wanted to cuff them all and throw them in a tank until they'd cooled off. As a friend who was slightly intoxicated himself, however, his brain told him to smash heads together until no one was left. Six against one wasn't fair...unless that one was Akihiko.

Make that six against two. He'd completely forgotten about Mitsuru until he heard an unmistakable wail of male anguish behind him that indicated she'd just nailed a guy in the crotch. Good thing she could take care of herself.

Dave, on the other hand, was looking pretty bad. He was puking up his beer and hopefully that wasn't blood, too. Seeing him on the ground – along with other guys in various stages of pain – triggered something unwanted in Akihiko. His friend was lying there badly injured. He couldn't heal him. What was he supposed to do now?

Fuck, he was a cop. He couldn't go around beating the shit out of people for beating the shit out of somebody else! Who were these guys, anyway? Part of a gang? What if their gang decided to go looking for the pig who got too involved in their business? Did he just involuntarily put a mark on his head? OR MITSURU'S?

"**Akihiko."**

The voice stopped him cold. Mitsuru's commanding voice, the one she used whenever they were in Tartarus or on serious missions, overrode his brain's fight-or-flight mechanism and kept him on track. This is what made her the leader of a bunch of stupid teenagers and the head of a successful corporation. No one could ignore that voice commanding them.

"Akihiko! The ambulance is coming. You need to go with David to translate for him. Tell them all the bills will be paid. DO NOT MENTION YOUR INVOLVEMENT. Tell them you found him this way."

"Yeah...yeah, okay."

"The witnesses have agreed to inform the police David was attacked from behind. The bar owners already know the identities of these men. **Stay at the hospital.** I will meet you there."

"Right."

"See to it that David gets whatever care he needs – and inform his emergency contacts."

"Okay."

"**Go.**"

"I'm going, yeah!" Thank goodness Mitsuru knew how to take charge. He grabbed Dave's belongings, flagged down the ambulance, told them he was going along, kissed Mitsuru goodbye, walked away…

Wait.

Did he just…

Akihiko got to the ambulance and sat down **hard**. _I just kissed Mitsuru. We kissed. Seven years of buildup, and it __just happened as __an afterthought as I was leaving. __Our first kiss. _My_ first kiss! _

_Fuck, she's gonna kill me._

_I think it was worth it, though._

_Wow!_

* * *

Mitsuru stood in the middle of a violent crime scene outside of a dive bar and decided this just might be the greatest night of her life. She was too stunned to even move at first. Akihiko had kissed her. It was only for a moment, and they were both concerned for David's well-being, but...they had finally kissed!

Her lips were still warm from the brief contact and she fought the urge to lick them. She'd dreamed of kissing Akihiko for years, always wondered but never had the courage to try, not even after Shirakawa Boulevard. In his panic, he actually took the time to show his gratitude towards her for taking charge of the situation.

By teasing her with the fleeting taste of him.

_O__oh, that man!_

She was only out of it for a moment before shaking the hormones out of her head and making her way to the bike which, thankfully, had not been burgled. Poor Akihiko must have been flashing back to watching Shinjiro die while he could do nothing. She'd been fearing the same thing herself. But David wasn't dead. This wasn't the Dark Hour. They could still save him.

Riding to the hospital took up most of her focus, and it was a miracle she didn't crash on the way there. Akihiko needed her now, just as he'd needed her then. She may have failed Shinjiro, but she would not fail this time.

* * *

This was a multicultural mess.

The hospital accepted that Dave was in a fight easily enough. The problem was that Akihiko didn't have any of Dave's information besides his name. Dave was conscious, but not alert enough to speak or respond to Japanese, which left Akihiko translating until the hospital promised to get a doctor who could speak English. This left Akihiko trying to contact the college, who knew more about Dave officially than he did. There was also a contact in his phone that said "old folks", which would have thrown Akihiko for a loop if he hadn't remembered Dave ranting about his parents with those same words. He took a deep breath and dialed.

Mitsuru found him twenty minutes later pulling his hair out. Evidently, "hospital" was a loaded word. The woman who answered was in hysterics, wailing about surgery and funerals and blood transfusions and how was she supposed to get to some place in Japan when she didn't speak Japanese and she seemed to have conflated Japan with China because she was sobbing about chopsticks, too. Oh, Davy was always frail, she shouldn't have sent him away...his great-uncle had that fatty disease, you know! (Akihiko didn't know, and really, REALLY wished he'd waited until Dave was awake before doing this) When the woman paused for a breath and to yell at (presumably) her husband in the background because this was all his fault, Akihiko gladly excused himself to go talk to the doctor and passed the phone to Mitsuru. Please let her no-nonsense diplomatic personality smooth things over!

Thankfully, Dave was fine. Nothing was broken, but he had enough bruising that they wanted to keep him for a few days to watch for blood poisoning and monitor his concussion. He was awake and at least speaking coherent English.

"Rock," he declared, "you're s'posta let me die to fuel your quest for vengeance."

"Please, I walked out of that movie, it was stupid as hell! They called that a robot? It was a bunch of tin cans tied together with string!" Aigis would have accompanied him to class for the rest of the year if she'd seen him watching that! "You gonna live? Your mom's on the phone."

The smirk that Dave was wearing vanished almost immediately. "You know what? I think I'm dying. Rock? You there, Rock? I can't see you anymore…"

"Yeah, he's fine." Akihiko was able to laugh for the first time that night. "Let me go rescue Mitsuru." He opened the door just in time to catch Mitsuru desperately looking for them so she could get away from Dave's mom going a mile a minute on the phone.

"It's no trouble at all, ma'am. I apologize for worrying you so. Rest easy for now. David appears to be doing just fine. I'll let you talk to him now. Thank you. Goodbye." She passed the phone to Dave and sighed, her expression comically flustered. "Can I have a word with you, Akihiko?"

Oh, boy. This was it. He hadn't been in his right mind for sure when he left, but it's not like he _**meant**_ to kiss her! It was only a little peck on the lips, after all. None of their friends had been there! Had it been that bad?

Mitsuru stopped and turned to face him, cloaking her emotions so he couldn't get a read on her. That meant trouble. "Aigis has assured me you've maintained nearly perfect attendance at school, and that your grades have been exemplary," she said out of nowhere.

"Uh...yeah?"

"Why, then, did you need me to speak to David's mother? Surely your English would have sufficed?"

Akihiko let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. They weren't talking about the kiss. "I wasn't thinking…the doctors hadn't come out yet, I didn't know what I was supposed to be telling her about Dave. She started crying, and I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying. She had a funny accent, too, nothing like the professors'…" He tried to play his nerves off as concern. "People listen better to you."

"In some cases, perhaps." Oh, thank goodness, she was smiling! "This woman was...very fond of tangents. I could hardly get a word in edgewise, especially when I promised her all the charges would be paid for. We've now been invited to visit them, should we find ourselves in America. Copious amounts of food have been promised as well."

"No shrimp, though."

He thought it was a funny joke, but Mitsuru instead groaned. "Oh, no, David's honorary uncle's sister tried serving them shrimp one Easter brunch because her husband successfully completed the Anderson account, but unfortunately, her Bichon Frise had a taste for seafood…"

That was when Akihiko lost it. "What the hell?" he chortled.

"I have absolutely no clue, but I am now privy to the whole sordid affair." They laughed for a while until Mitsuru decided to get serious again. "Does...does this count as a success?"

"Well, no one died?" Maybe the problem wasn't finding something suitable to do on a date. Maybe they just shouldn't announce to the universe that they were dating, and nothing would go wrong. "I don't know any more than you do. Maybe we should let someone else plan these."

Neither of them said they wanted the dates to continue. Neither of them said they wanted to stop. They both seemed terrified to start that conversation. _Do you like me, or...wha__t__? _

Mitsuru chose to leave before things got too awkward. "I suppose I should talk to the doctor," she said. At least, when the doctor wasn't poking at her, she seemed okay with them.

Akihiko watched her go down the hall, taking his confidence with her. This was all supposed to be part of his half-assed plan to get everyone's Personas back by making them friends again, but somehow, it turned into getting closer to Mitsuru. He'd learned absolutely nothing about Personas. Was he going about it all wrong? Was Yukari right about him just using this opportunity for his own ends?

No. Mitsuru wanted her Persona back, and so did he. They were lost as they fought, so maybe they'd come back if they made up. Sure, it sounded simple, but it was better than doing nothing. Akihiko was never one to be passive. He was going to get those Personas back or die trying. Mitsuru being eternally grateful to him was just icing on the cake.

What they needed, Akihiko decided, was outside help. He'd been on the right track going back and doing everything they'd done in the past...but he'd forgotten one very important detail.

They needed a Wild Card.

* * *

-ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp-

Dave here is the closest thing I have to an audience-insert; the one person who has absolutely no idea what's going on in the universe he's just been dropped into. (Also a little clue as to what Part 3 of this series will be about.)

Rocky 4 is the movie they're talking about in the hospital, where Rocky's rival-turned-friend Apollo Creed dies from his injuries, and his brother-in-law Paulie receives an...interesting birthday present.


	13. Burned Out

It was just like Akihiko to fail spectacularly at one task, only to succeed at another.

The Shadow Operatives hadn't seen one another for over a week – and they seemed fine with it. The others had settled into their non-Persona lives and adapted better than anyone had expected. Even Aigis had a job, working with computers with Fuuka when the latter wasn't at school. You'd think a robot built to use a Persona would be lost without a Persona, but they'd taught her so much about being human that she was eager to take a shot at it. Did anyone even care anymore? Or were they so used to their senpai taking care of everything that they were content to just live their lives until the next command came in?

Akihiko made his way to the docks to catch the ferry to Yakushima and wondered if anyone else was going to show up. If not, an entire beach house populated by just him and Mitsuru could get really awkward, really fast. He was glad to see a cab pull up...but the people getting out were considerably younger than he'd expected.

"Hey, Master!" Chie was calling to him as she bounced over to the pier. "D'ya know if Mitsuru-san's summer home has a barbecue?"

"Simmer down, Meat-for-brains! Look, you freaked him out already." Yosuke attempted to shove her backwards as he apologetically joined them. "I'm thinking no one told you what was up," he assumed.

"That's an understatement," replied Akihiko.

Fortunately, the last few passengers in the cab were Yu and Nanako. "Long story short, our school's been shut down for fumigation," he explained.

"**Somehow**," Yosuke continued, "a bunch of roaches moved in." He was looking pointedly at Teddie Teddie. "And just after Teddie started going to school, too."

Teddie Teddie was sweating through his suit – or at least, doing a pretty good impression of a human sweating through his suit. "What a beary strange coincidence!"

"Naoto mentioned it to Mitsuru-san, so she was kind enough to invite us to your party, especially when she found out Yosuke's birthday is coming up, too." Yu didn't seem to outwardly care about this.

"Does Mitsuru-san really have TWO houses?" Nanako could not hold still. "Is this one the castle?"

"She's got more than that, actually. But you don't go to Yasogami, do you?"

"Yeah, um…" Yu looked uncomfortable.

"Dad went away for work," said Nanako, "and I'm not allowed to be home alone on account of...um...you know."

Adachi. Mitsuru told him what Naoto had passed on about his involvement in the kidnappings. It made him sick to think about this little girl being used as a tool in some attention-grabbing, murderous jerk-off session. Cops were supposed to keep kids safe. He was damn well going to punch that man's lights out if he ever saw him again.

By the time the rest of the Inaba kids showed up, Mitsuru herself had arrived, looking amused as Yu herded Nanako over to thank her multiple times for the invite. She had Fuuka and the 'bots with her, and smiled as she saw Akihiko had kept his promise to show up. Her smile quickly faded when she didn't spot any of her other friends. Akihiko figured Yukari would pitch a fit, but he'd thought Junpei would at least be here. Ken, too, considering it was supposed to be his party. Who the hell refused a free vacation just to be petty? He wisely separated himself from a discussion about bathing suits and made his way over to her.

"We're gonna need a bigger boat," he found himself saying before realizing she probably wouldn't get that it was a joke.

"Perhaps not…" she mumbled, still looking for the others.

There were a million excuses he could give her. Traffic was bad. No one had a watch. Their phones all conveniently happened to die at the exact same time. They were ungrateful bitches...(maybe not that one). But this was supposed to be a fun trip for bonding with friends, and Akihiko was determined to keep it that way. Screw the no-shows. If this made Mitsuru happy again, that was all that mattered.

"Oh, here's something you'll like," he told her instead, "There was an incident in Colombia – I'm not getting into it – and I uh, sort of lost my swimwear."

Mitsuru smirked. "Do tell."

"If I do, you'll hit me. Suffice it to say that I bought another one that isn't as...streamlined." Sometimes, it amazed Akihiko that everything that had happened to him in South America had only taken about a year or so. It all felt like some adventure novel. If Mitsuru really knew what had gone on there, she might die of laughter before she could Execute him and never speak to him again.

"Oh, thank goodness!" Seeing Mitsuru blush was like catching a blue moon, but it was just as beautiful.

FINALLY, just as the boat was about to arrive, the Reserve Operatives pulled up in another cab with a dog head happily hanging out the window. The boys bounded out, but then doubled back and literally pulled a sulking Yukari out of the back seat. Akihiko tried to ignore the relief he heard flood Mitsuru's lungs so he could concentrate on glaring at Yukari, who looked like she was being dragged to prison. _Why didn't you just stay home if you were gonna be like this? __You clearly don't want a Persona anymore. Hell, you didn't want yours to begin with. Bu__t could you at least acknowledge that this is__ important to your __**best friend?**_

Junpei – with more tact than they'd ever attribute to him – refused to let a cat fight commence. "Da-da-da-DAA! Operation Beach House Birthday Bash can set sail! Bring on the bikinis!" He frogmarched Yukari onto the boat before she could protest. "Heeey, Inaba cuties! The more the merrier!"

Teddie Teddie was on the same pervy wavelength. "A romantic summer getaway with sophisticated city women...could this be the year Teddie finally finds true love?"

"Oh, so you're looking for a girl, huh, Teddie? Well, you're in luck! I happen to know of the perfect oceanside activity...that is, if you care to make a little wager." Okay, those two needed to be kept apart as much as possible. Not doing that again!

Yukari had gone wherever Mitsuru wasn't, but she couldn't really get that far outside of jumping off the boat (and Akihiko HOPED she wasn't that stupid!), so Ken felt it was all right to approach them. "Thank you again for arranging this on such short notice, Mitsuru-san. Most of us really do appreciate how much you're willing to do for your friends." He looked guilty. "We didn't mean to be so late, but I guess some of us just...weren't quite ready." He wouldn't elaborate, but he looked back in the direction of the cabin, and the other shoe dropped. Man, if Ken got any sager, they'd have to use him for seasoning.

"It's all right, Amada. Better late than never, _non_? And...thank you for trying." Mitsuru seemed to have resigned herself to spending the weekend with everyone else. Well, hey, Naoto was coming along. Mitsuru always liked shooting the shit with her; some intelligent talk that went over just about everyone's heads should do the trick.

And if not, well...maybe a hurricane would come and force everyone to stay inside for the whole trip.

* * *

It was always strange to Mitsuru to see just how others reacted to the lifestyle she'd been accustomed to. What she usually took for granted was lauded as "outrageous" or simply "amazing". All the Investigation Team would talk about all evening were the rooms they'd been given, the exclusive beach, and the service they'd been receiving. Mitsuru had caught Shirogane gazing longingly at the library and her father's study – the latter of which she had hastily closed off. It felt wrong to go wandering into there without his permission. They were even entranced with the **kitchens**, for heaven's sake – the _**kitchens**_! At this rate, they'd all have massive nosebleeds by the time they'd reached the game rooms!

Nanako was simply beside herself with glee. Mitsuru had thought her reaction to a limousine was cute enough, but this poor, oft-neglected girl must have thought her fairy godmother had come at last. "I can see the ocean from every window!" she gasped, her face illuminated like a Christmas tree. "This is _better_ than a castle!"

"Better than Junes, even?" Narukami teased.

"Hey…!" Hanamura couldn't resist pouting.

Nanako thought for a moment. "It's better than a castle with its own Junes inside!" She decided.

As with most of their interactions, Mitsuru couldn't help but chuckle. "My! To think I have beaten the illustrious Junes!" At least someone was grateful for her hospitality. "Well then, what would you like to do tomorrow?"

"I want to go to the beach! No...I want to have a picnic! Um, Mitsuru-san? Do you ever have...boxed lunches?"

"Nanako, don't get carried away now," Narukami warned.

Mitsuru had a devil of a time pretending she had to think it over. "Hmm. I suppose I could arrange that. In fact, I don't see why you couldn't have lunch at the beach itself – it's a private beach, after all. We'll have the majority of it to ourselves."

"Boxed lunches ON THE BEACH?!" Oh, dear. Nanako was going to explode. Sure enough, she made a squealing noise as she propelled herself towards Mitsuru. "**You're the best EVER!**"

She was so happy.

Mitsuru could have bought her a pony or a baby grand piano, but all the girl wanted was a bento.

Such a little thing...and yet it meant so much.

_ When Mitsuru was young, her father spent most of his time in this very office, shouting on phones and shuffling through papers. He almost never made it home in time for bedtime stories. Couldn't be bothered to hear about school over supper._

"_Father?" she would ask, hesitantly, "Would you look at my report? I want to know if the teacher will approve of it."_

"_I'm very busy, Mitsuru. Perhaps another time. Your grades are always exemplary. Tell you what; if you bring home top marks, I'll buy you the biggest doll I can find. Would you like that?"_

_And Father never heard her reply, "I **have** a doll. I have dozens of dolls." He would not be home when Mitsuru returned with the top marks as usual. The promised doll would arrive by servant. Mitsuru had more dolls and toys than anyone her age, but she didn't want any of them. She wanted her father to spend time with her. _

"Such a little thing..."

She hadn't realized she'd spoken out loud until Akihiko made to wipe her tears away.

Narukami had already shuffled Nanako off to bed, and the Operatives were alone, watching their leader choke down bitter memories. Nanako thought she was "the best ever". In her darkest moment, when Mitsuru found herself feeling as useless as a broken toy, someone saw value in her. It was all too much to take on top of everything else. She had to retreat before embarrassing herself in front of the juniors yet again. Akihiko looked as if he wanted to say something, one hand still outstretched, but Mitsuru shook her head and scurried away before he could speak. Why did it hurt so much to be so loved?

Yukari said nothing.

* * *

Naoto hadn't been friends with the Investigation Team when they'd spontaneously drove up to Shichiri Beach last year. She might not have gone even if she had. Beaches meant bathing suits, and bathing suits meant her painstakingly crafted persona (how bitterly ironic) was in jeopardy. Men did not wear two-piece suits.

Naoto did not wear two-piece suits. When the one-sided conversations with Rise turned to their upcoming vacation, she broke out in a cold sweat upon realizing that gender would be her undoing. What was she going to wear? It seemed impolite to decline the invitation to the beach, after Mitsuru had graciously extended it to them. Should she feign illness? Claim that this was her unsanitary time of the month? Such an excuse was entirely feasible...but she felt bad about lying to her friends. Time spent with all of them was incredibly rare. Their lives were taking them in so many different directions. Who knew when another opportunity to gather together would arise?

This was why Naoto found herself facing down the full-length mirror in one of Yakushima's en suite bathrooms, forcing herself to look at this stranger in a bathing suit.

Against Rise's wishes, she'd gone with the simplest one-piece she could find, a pale blue torture device that was, by everyone else's standards, modest. The "support lining" it promised did very little to subdue her bust. How did women of stature _**wear**_ these things? Surely Mitsuru, with her shapely figure, would be unable to stop gravity from taking its toll when she moved? Why would anyone subject themselves to this exploitation? This was definitely a man's doing, Naoto decided. Only a man would expect women to wear these humiliating harnesses while allowing themselves the freedom of swim trunks that were barely distinguishable from their everyday underwear.

_Do not think about Kanji in swim trunks._

Well, now she was going to! Thank you very much, hormones!

Oh. Oh, dear. What was going to happen to Kanji when he set eyes on Naoto in this state of undress? He nearly died of blood loss when she tried on a female school uniform! He would expire in front of her, and then Yosuke's death from laughter would follow. Losing two members of the Investigation Team when they were the only ones left with Personas was NOT worth the risk!

Naoto quickly grabbed the brightly-colored and much-too-cheerful coverup she'd also purchased and hoped it was enough to stave off any mortal disasters. As she crept down the hallway, she overheard Nanako happily reporting to Dojima by phone.

"Hi, Dad! Guess what? My bed has a roof!" she chirped.

At least she was having a good time. It was always Nanako who kept the group's collective spirits up. Perhaps she could do the same for the Shadow Operatives.

The beach was, as promised, devoid of strangers as Naoto approached. Her friends dotted the landscape like islands of color; Chie and Yosuke arguing over who splashed who first, Koromaru and Teddie chasing each other through the surf, Junpei pestering a Yukari who refused to budge from her chair while Yukiko occupied another one, sunning herself. She was shocked to find that even Fuuka was confident enough to appear in a little ruffled swim skirt. Was she making a mountain out of a molehill?

No. As she got closer, Junpei noticed her and smirked. "See? Even Nao-cakes is willing to party!" _Nao-cakes. Why am I always Nao-cakes? _

This appeared to be the worst possible thing to say to Yukari, who would surely have whipped up a tornado had she the power to. "Especially after Senpai _invited_ her _**personally!"**_ That was odd. Had she done something to offend Yukari? Naoto hadn't spent much time with the actress, but Mitsuru had assured her she was capable in battle and fiercely loyal. Perhaps she had just wanted this vacation to be for her close friends only.

"Naoto's here?" Kanji had been obscured from her vision by a sandcastle, but he stuck his head out when he heard about her arrival. He stiffened as he took in her embarrassing apparel. "Uh...y'look, uh…"

"Short?" Junpei offered unhelpfully.

Whatever blood might have headed to Kanji's nose was rerouted to the rest of his face as he glared at Junpei. "FINE! Y'LOOK FINE!" he shouted as he angrily smashed a bucket full of sand on his creation. "Aw, now look what'cha did! This whole tower is ruined!" He stood up to repair the demolition, and…

_Oh, goodness gracious._

Kanji's swim attire consisted of nothing but several elastic hair ties supporting a handkerchief that was supporting his...manhood. It covered only the barest of flesh and left virtually nothing to the imagination. He was approximately 99% naked.

Naoto wasn't sure when the ground came up to meet her, but she was very grateful that it was soft.

"Nao-chan is down!" Teddie jogged up to her. "Don't worry! Teddie will give her the smooch of life!"

"Teddie, we want to wake her up, not kill her more!" scolded Chie.

"Has something happened?" New voices joined the scene as Mitsuru, Akihiko, Ken, and Rise arrived, looking either confused or – in Rise's case – smug. Mitsuru immediately assumed responsibility. "Is everyone all right?"

Rise was giggling. "Looks like Naoto-kun found her little surprise!" She _**knew**_ about this? Yet she did not see fit to warn her that Kanji would be functionally nude? Indignation gave Naoto the power to rise to her knees and attempt to give the idol a glare. "Having beefcake for lunch, Naoto-kun?" When Kanji emerged from behind his cover once again to scold Rise, everyone did their best to avoid looking directly at him.

Akihiko had gone pale. "Okay…did I actually look that ridiculous, too-"

"Yes," Mitsuru answered before he'd even finished asking the question.

"Oh, yeah," added Yukari.

"Yep," said Junpei.

Even Fuuka agreed. "It was a little much, Senpai."

"Statistical analysis has refuted the claim that Akihiko-san's streamlined swimwear allowed him to improve his speed while swimming." Aigis moved fairly nimbly on sand for a robot with no feet. "It has no useful functions outside of embarrassing both the wearer and the surrounding audience."

Labrys, the earlier model, used far less words. "Why're you out here in your underwear, Kanji-kun? Didja lose your clothes?"

This was enough to cause Kanji to dash away spluttering, leaving his creation behind to the laughs and jeers of his supposed friends. Naoto had half a mind to pursue him, but he more than likely could not face her right now, and the view from behind would not be any less traumatizing for the both of them than the front view was.

One last voice called out as he ran away: "Some seaweed over here, Kanji," though Naoto had no idea what it was referring to. Yu and Nanako had arrived at last, either diffusing the tension on the beach, or flat-out pretending it never existed in the first place.

"It's so blue and sparkly!" Nanako was gazing longingly at the ocean. "I can't wait to go swimming!"

"Was Dojima-san really mad?" Yosuke was asking.

"Not as much as usual," replied Yu, "He only yelled once. Nanako was so happy that he didn't have the heart to tell her she needed to return to an empty house. We're all under arrest if anything happens to her, though." He may or may not have been joking.

"Why did Kanji-kun leave?" asked Nanako. Dojima-san would certainly blow a fuse if he'd known his young daughter was being exposed to male anatomy much earlier than necessary.

No one seemed to have a G-rated answer for her until Fuuka of all people spoke up. "I think he was upset that his surprise for you was ruined," she explained, "He wanted you to have a real castle on the beach."

The sandcastle still looked very elaborate and sturdy despite its one construction mishap, and Nanako's reaction was still preciously priceless. "OH! It's the best sandcastle I've ever seen! Look, there's a drawbridge, and a moat...well, one tower is a little crooked. Why don't we fix it up for him? He'll be surprised, too!"

"That's a wonderful idea, Nanako-chan! I'm sure that will make Kanji-kun feel better," said Yukiko, deliberately coming over to place herself on Yu's left side...

...leaving Rise to flank his right side. Grinning widely at Naoto, she added, "Yeah, he'll perk right up!"

_I suddenly find myself with the urge to buy an oversized Kanamin Kitchen poster and display it prominently in my apartment. _

* * *

\- pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp -

As soon as I remembered Akihiko and Kanji both had the same Speedo, I realized things would get really awkward.

Even though Naoto never wore a bathing suit for the pageant, I'd imagine she'd go with something more reserved, like a one-piece or something with boy shorts.

The Golden version of the Persona 4 animation implies that Naoto is prone to the slippery slope fallacy, where she imagines things spiraling out of control into something crazy.


	14. Where There's Smoke

\- ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp -

* * *

Marie awoke in her human apartment with what was definitely not a human migraine. She went to splash water on her face and found to her dismay that one of her eyes had turned pickle-green again. Something disturbing was happening. Yu had to know!

Oh, wait. Yu had left Inaba, along with everyone else. Something about a castle party at the beach...no, a beach party at a castle? Whatever it was, he wasn't here and Marie still hadn't figured out the phelltone so she couldn't get in contact with him! Now what was she supposed to do? She pulled open the curtains to make sure it wasn't raining and was met with a ghastly sight.

**Another** tower? Why were there so many towers lately? And why were they all ugly? Not that a pretty tower would have helped – Inaba didn't have any towers in the first place.

Something at the top of the tower flashed, a blindingly bright light sending waves of pain through Marie's empowered eye and straight up to her brain until she keeled over. When it passed and she stood upright once more...the tower was gone. Everything looked perfectly normal and boring. She ran to the mirror, and found that both of her eyes looked human and boring again. What was going on?

Marie hastily got dressed and ran downtown (such as it was) to the mostly abandoned shopping district, hoping she was wrong and right at the same time. Sure enough, nestled among the ripoff machines and closed stores was a familiar blue door.

"OPEN UP, NOSE!" Marie pounded on the door with both fists. "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE! IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW, I'LL...I'LL…"

Fortunately she didn't need to come up with empty threats, because the door clicked open, allowing her to shove her way inside.

* * *

Kanji did not return to the beach until later that afternoon, so Naoto didn't get a chance to apologize for...well, she wasn't sure what. The collective actions of her friends, she supposed. She tugged the hem of her coverup for what must have been the hundredth time and vowed revenge on whoever invented swimwear.

Most of the boys had made themselves scarce for reasons that had Akihiko looking over his shoulder worriedly, so the remaining crowd was mostly girls. Naoto finally felt secure enough to take cover under a beach umbrella and relax to some extent. She had to admit that it was nice to get away from one's duties every now and again. Everyone's moods seemed to be much brighter. Nanako ran blissfully through the waves, laughing and cheering as if she hadn't a care in the world.

_Was I ever like that?_

She had to have been at some point...didn't she?

Mitsuru had gone back up to the beach house to discuss something with a maid – perhaps the coveted boxed lunches – and she had somehow timed her return with the sun breaking through the clouds. It was like watching one of Rise's sentimental dramas. But Mitsuru never clamored for the attention she received (chiefly from Akihiko, who had been too distracted to move out of the path of a tremendous wave and was quite literally swept off his feet). She seemed just as home in a bikini as she did in a catsuit or a torn petticoat and partially-exposed slip. What was it like to be comfortable in your own skin?

"Don't you just hate her?" Rise had slipped under the umbrella without her noticing.

"On some level, partially," Naoto replied before she could censor herself.

Rise allowed her jaw to drop comically. "_Rrreow_, Naoto-kun!" Naoto instinctively reached for the brim of her hat before remembering that she wasn't wearing one. "I mean, I'm sure she's used to that, but it's not like **you** have anything to worry about!"

_Please do not jab me in the chest-_

She jabbed Naoto in the chest.

_Oh, for crying out loud!_

"I am not in any unspoken competition with Mitsuru-san, Rise-san. We are both consummate professionals in our respective fields. We just so happen to have dealt with the same issues in vastly different ways, which constantly intrigues me."

"So, ask her how she works with boobs."

Sadly, Naoto had also left her gun behind. "**That's**...this is not a discussion I'd planned to have on a beach chair with sand between my toes." Fortunately, Mitsuru was oblivious to the fact that she was being discussed, attempting to talk to Yukari, but meeting only resistance. "Or at all, really." It was hardly Mitsuru's fault that she'd been born with self-confidence. Besides, they had first been introduced when Naoto was investigating the Kirijo Group for Public Safety. They worked together on a business level. It wasn't as if they were friends.

"BOXED LUNCHES!" Nanako was running laps around the sandcastle as Koromaru attempted to keep up with her. "Rise-chan, Naoto-kun! Do you want some lunch?" She didn't stay put for the answer. "Where did all the boys go?"

"Really thought we'd hear some screaming by now…" Akihiko was muttering to himself. "Must be that Wild Card luck again."

"Labrys, would you go find out what's keeping them?" Mitsuru now looked worried as well.

"They better not bring back another "tank" that's all I'm saying", added Akihiko.

The suspected shouting **did** ring out, along with a hail of buckets that seemed painfully familiar. Sure enough, the boys came screaming up the coastline, red-faced and bruised. Labrys followed carrying both Teddie and Junpei, and they could hear her chastising them.

"...thinking with your shorts! What the hell's wrong with you?" she yelled. "All these people are rich! That means they can afford a good lawyer!"

"Called it." Akihiko smirked.

"Everything was going according to plan until THIS CLOWN screwed it up!" Junpei protested.

Teddie was the only boy who didn't seem terrified. "You're just jealous because I was winning!" he insisted, "I scored the most beach blanket beauties!"

"THOSE GIRLS WERE UNDERAGE, NIMROD!" Labrys fumed. She dropped both him and Junpei face down in the sand.

"Senpai? What were you doing?" Rise had made a beeline for Yu as usual, but pulled back upon hearing the word "girls".

"Making a huge mistake," Yu couldn't meet her eyes. Kanji, Yosuke, and Ken all had the same expression.

The shoe dropped for everyone, but it was Yukari who reacted first. "Oh my god, were you **making a game out of** _**trolling for girls?!**_ Stupei, were you born without a brain?" She appeared to be right on both counts.

Naoto had no idea why the idea of Kanji trying to hit on strange girls on the beach gave her a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she was going to have to refuse that boxed lunch.

The other girls seemed to share the same sentiment. "Why would you even do something like that?" Yukiko asked. "What was the point?"

"Bragging rights and free ramen," said Akihiko. He had clearly participated in this before...to Mitsuru's shock and sadness.

"I am absolutely disgusted with all of you," Mitsuru lectured, "and extremely disappointed in you, Amada. I would not have expected such behavior from you of all people."

"I only went to stave off trouble!" Ken insisted. "But there were too many of them for just me." Koromaru whined. "Nah, it's not your fault, boy. You were looking out for everyone else."

Mitsuru turned now to Akihiko, who had not earned his position of authoritative scorn. "You knew this was going on the entire time-"

"-I _thought_ that was what they were doing! Note that they didn't actually mention anything to me-"

"-and you did nothing," she concluded, "To save your own skin."

"How the hell is any of this MY fault?" Akihiko was not taking this lying down. "Maybe you should stop inviting teenagers to the beach and expecting a business meeting to take place."

"Perhaps I should also stop assuming there are more responsible adults among us."

For once, Yukari was on the same page. "You're just as bad as the rest of them, Senpai!"

"YEP! That's me! A lousy guy – just like Junpei and Teddie Teddie...and Makoto!" This froze the entire party. Akihiko had aimed directly for the weakest link. "Surprised? Who do you think won the last one?" he asked. When he received no answer, he stormed off, no doubt wishing he could conjure up an actual storm. He definitely left a few clouds behind.

Margaret appeared to be right on track with her observation that Wild Cards were man-whores.

* * *

Akihiko hadn't really expected so much drama at Yakushima this time. This may have been proof that he was an idiot. Teenage boys on the beach would always mean Operation Babe Hunt. So maybe he did abstain in order to stay out of trouble. Wasn't that a sign of maturity? Since when was he in charge of all the boys? Junpei didn't even call him "senpai" anymore!

At least some of them were having a good time. Nanako loved the beach and the boxed lunches and everything everyone pointed out to her. Ken was almost acting his age. Even Yosuke took some time out from teasing Kanji, Naoto, and Chie to personally thank Mitsuru for what was apparently the best birthday he'd had in a while. Koromaru "said" that he was overjoyed to have all of his friends in one place and perfectly willing to spill food. If it wasn't for the circumstances that brought them together, this would've been a great vacation. Still, doubts lingered in Akihiko's mind. He had little faith left in his own plan. He'd been hoping to get the Shadow Operatives to sit down and talk to each other, but there were just enough Investigation Team members to keep them all occupied, so it never happened. Maybe he could lock them in the butler's pantry two at a time until they hashed it out.

The one relationship that had been in good shape when they got here, however, was now threatening to come loose – and that was his fault. The moment Mitsuru got angry at him, he threw Makoto in her face again. That was always going to be his gut reaction, wasn't it? He'd really thought he was over it, but the idea that all the girls still canonized their leader while bashing the other guys had hurt more than he cared to admit.

Better practice what he'd been preaching and go talk to her.

Mitsuru had disappeared after lunch (which she at least ate – Akihiko had been worried she would start living on tea again), so the sun was beginning to set by the time he found her by a little crop of tide pools close to the house. She looked too contemplative for her own good, idly watching grains of sand fall from her fingers as if she were counting them. He didn't think she could sense him coming anymore until she spoke.

"You don't need to get my express permission to ask for anything," she said.

"Yeah, I know." Akihiko'd come a long way from being terrified to even speak to the servants, who he felt outclassed him, to commiserating with them in their servitude. Shinji had laughed at him, but they were amused by this guy who kept saying "please" and "thank you" to them. He was pretty sure Mitsuru had told them to accept orders from him as well, but he tried not to get too comfortable with that. "I just wanted to know if you wanted any watermelon before the kids ate it all. It was like a feeding frenzy; they went nuts. You'd think they'd never smashed a watermelon before."

She appeared to have noticed him rinsing his hands in the surf. Her eyes narrowed. "You punched a watermelon, didn't you?"

"Couple of 'em." Was that a smile she was biting back? "Okay, when **you** say it, it sounds kind of stupid..."

"Was the watermelon making unsavory comments about your mother?"

"No," Akihiko pouted. Was he really that predictable? But he had her! It **was** a smile! She even looked like she was trying not to chuckle! "The little one, though, he was checking you out. I wasn't going to stand for that."

Mitsuru finally let the laugh free. "I don't believe I've ever been ogled by a watermelon before." Then she pulled a face. "I've certainly never uttered a sentence like that before."

Now it was Akihiko's turn to hold back the first thing that popped into his head. "There's a joke here somewhere, and I think Shinji's the one making it."

He accepted the slap Mitsuru gave him as she sauntered by – but something or some**one** made him retaliate by splashing her, and it was like a call to arms. Even when nobody was speaking, Mitsuru had to have the last word. And after his defeat at the bowling alley, Akihiko was determined to get the upper hand this time. She ran, and he gave chase without a moment's thought.

Time to hunt his own babe.

* * *

All in all, it had been a great evening. Nanako finally got her smashed watermelon, and everyone was there to witness a pod of dolphins surfacing on their way home. Yu hadn't felt this at peace with his friends since the ski trip. It reaffirmed his belief in bonds and the freedom in making your own family of choice. He'd missed these people and the meaning they gave his life.

The Shadow Operatives seemed to be afraid to search for their lost bonds, a fact that really saddened him. From what he understood, Shadow-hunting had been like a job for them, something they had to do because they were the only ones who could do it. They only lived together because it made for a convenient cover story with school and the public. Personas brought them together. Friendship was secondary. But they'd all agreed to work for Mitsuru now, even when they had their own lives to lead. Didn't that mean they were friends?

He hadn't realized how contemplative he was being until Nanako voiced her concerns as he was putting her to bed. "Have we been good guests, Big Bro?"

"I think so. We haven't broken anything. No one's called the police on us...yet." If someone didn't keep an eye on Teddie, though, who knows what could happen.

"But Mitsuru-san still seems sad."

"Being an adult is hard." Yu struggled to come up with an explanation that would make sense to her. "A day at the beach can't always fix things." Nanako didn't look like she was going to get to sleep with this weighing her down, so he quickly added, "Why don't you ask her about the house tomorrow? She lived here as a kid. Maybe there are surprises you haven't found yet."

"Oh! You mean like secret passages?"

"This could be a job for Detective Loveline."

Nanako giggled into her pillow. "I'm on the case!" Hopefully, that would sustain her. Now all he had to do was make sure Mitsuru was willing to indulge her tomorrow.

The two teams had a roaring campfire going when he returned to the beach, but neither Mitsuru nor Akihiko were present. Yukari was doing her best to look as if she wasn't affected as she chatted with Rise. Even from a distance, Yu could tell that the idol was pulling out all the stops to keep the mood high. She always considered it her problem when someone wasn't cheerful, and was personally affronted when her charm failed to boost morale.

Who boosted Rise's morale, he wondered?

Silly question, really. He knew what the answer was when he approached the group.

"Arf!"

"Yu-kun's back!" Koromaru and Labrys spotted him first.

"Senpaiiii!" Rise chirped, "You're just in time for the game." Oh, dear god. That look in her eyes was NOT good! "Guess what it is?"

She leaned forward. Yu leaned backwards. "Marshmallow jousting?" he said cautiously. _Please don't say what I think you're going to say!_

"No, but aww, that does sound kind of fun."

"Yeah, can we do that instead?" asked Yosuke.

"Yeah, c'mon, Rise-chan, none of us voted for-" _Chie, don't, PLEASE don't!_ "-the King's Game again!" Those three little words sent a chill down Yu's spine. That "game" ought to be illegal.

Yukiko of all people seemed eager. "But it was fun!" When Chie gave her the most disgusted look he'd ever seen, she recoiled. "Wasn't it?"

"Yukiko-senpai," Was Naoto _**sweating**_? "I don't think your memories of that evening are...reliable."

Kanji helpfully translated. "You were shitfaced drunk and there wasn't even any booze."

"Oh." This did nothing to dampen Yukiko's mood. "Did I win, though?"

"Why?" Yu could only shake his head. "Why won't that game die?" _And why are the two people most eager to play it the two people who have their eye on me?_

The Shadow Operatives apparently hadn't played the game, but their reactions were just as mixed. "I dunno, it sounds like fun," said Junpei.

"Wait, I think I've heard about this before." Yukari wasn't that confident. "There are wrap parties where they play the King's Game and it gets really out of hand."

"Also, if there's alcohol involved, I don't think I want any part of this," said Ken.

"There wasn't any alcohol involved to begin with," Naoto explained to him, "a fact which I explained several times to all participants – though they didn't listen." Yu was pretty sure she only mentioned it once, but anything that nipped this sadistic little game in the bud was more than welcome.

"Maybe we shouldn't commit to any games until we can ask Senpai." Fuuka took the easy way out.

Yu couldn't resist teasing her. "Not even marshmallow jousting?"

"Leaning pretty hard on that one, aren't you, Partner?" Yosuke quipped.

Yu would have retorted, but a high-pitched squeal had everyone leaping up in alarm.

"_EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!_"

Rise was in front of him, so that left...

"Senpai?" Yukari had forgotten to be angry in the event that Mitsuru was once again in distress.

"Stopstopstopstopstop! Aaaakihiko…!" They found the not-couple tussling on the beach, with Mitsuru red in the face shrieking with laughter, but in no danger of anything except eating sand. She was struggling to get away from Akihiko as he held onto one of her legs, tickling her foot.

"Ha-ha! Next time you wanna kick somebody, make sure you're wearing boots!" laughed Akihiko as he mercilessly teased her. "What'cha gonna do now, huh? Now what? I've got you now!" He grabbed hold of her and she curled into a ball of giggles.

"No fair!" said Mitsuru, swinging ineffectually at him.

"I've never seen them play like that." Fuuka looked much happier than the last time they found Mitsuru screaming.

"Humans are really ticklish, aren't they?" Labrys observed.

"I GIVE UP! I YIELD!" They watched as Mitsuru desperately tried to get away.

"I'll let you go on one condition," said Akihiko.

"What? WHAT?"

"Say, 'I'm an idiot'."

Mitsuru waited until he let her stand before smirking. "You're an idiot."

"BZZZZT! Wrong answer!"

"**NOOOOOO!**"

But it was too late. Akihiko had picked Mitsuru up and slung her over his shoulder, caveman-style. Mitsuru was beating her fists against his chest, but someone as muscular as Akihiko could barely feel it. "Again with that side – what, is that your favorite pec?" he laughed.

"I think it's safe to say Akihiko-san won this round of Babe Hunt," sighed Junpei.

"It hurts to see someone else living out your dreams," Teddie added.

They had finally noticed the others. "Oh, HEY, GUYS!" Akihiko punctuated his greeting by swinging around abruptly, sending Mitsuru's hair flying.

"Aaah!"

"It's amazing what you can find on the beach, isn't it? Look, I found this cold fish!"

"Hmph!" Mitsuru took so much offense to his pun that she hit the first area she could reach – his ass. Akihiko was not expecting that at all, and he nearly dropped her in his embarrassment.

"Again, I have to wonder – should we be watching this?" Ken asked no one in particular.

Yukari didn't find the situation very funny. "Is anyone going to be mature today?"

"WHAT'S THAT, Yukari?" Akihiko swung back around, tossing Mitsuru as if she were a pizza.

"Stoooop, I'm going to be sick!" Mitsuru had also stopped laughing.

"Okay, everybody's gettin' outta control. We're gonna get kicked off the beach." Labrys was a good Student Council President. "Let's stop horsin' around before someone gets hurt, huh?"

Akihiko didn't seem to like his fun being canceled, and he began mocking Labrys in an exaggerated impression of her already outlandish accent. "_Oh, yeah, ya don't wanna hafta __do not'in'__ with some-a __dat dere __**horsin**__' around, y'know? __Why, I oughta puncha right in da schnoz, ya wise guy! __Y__a joik!"_

"I don't sound like that, ya big lug!" Labrys tried to refute him, but Akihiko had nailed her accent. "Huh. Guess I do, don't I?" At least she was a good sport about it, joining the others as they all laughed. Even Mitsuru had calmed down once Akihiko forgot about his onslaught and let her go.

When the fire went out, the laughter died with it.

It wasn't that it was suddenly very dark, that was normal, it was evening. No, the fact that the entire beach was now entirely _**quiet **_was the disturbing part. No water, no animals, just the erratic breathing of the people on the beach whose hearts had just skipped a beat and all immediately came to the same conclusion.

"This **is** the same vacation as before," said Junpei, "right down to the Da-" Yukari clamped a hand over his mouth before he could finish his sentence, directing his attention to Mitsuru who was beginning to panic.

Was this another Dark Hour? It couldn't possibly have been midnight yet; Nanako had just gone to bed! Furthermore, Mitsuru said that only the Kirijo Group had the tech to recreate one, and that was strictly for emergencies. Being tickled to death didn't count as an emergency – and Mitsuru looked just as clueless as the rest of them.

Well, if this was the Dark Hour, maybe he could try summoning his Persona? He held out a hand and tried imagining his Tarot card, only for Naoto to stop him the moment she caught on. Before he could protest, she pointed to the sky. Oh. The moon was its normal pale white color, meaning this wasn't a real Dark Hour. He remembered how the Team had freaked out when they saw it become a giant green egg. As Yu looked around more, he realized the water wasn't red, either. The world hadn't changed, and the Shadow Operatives were now murmuring to themselves, relieved but very confused.

"I smell something beary familiar.." said Teddie.

He must have blinked or zoned out for a second. His eyes must have been playing tricks on him, because one minute there was nothing there, and then something tore a hole in reality and Marie appeared, stumbling as she tried to regain her footing. It was like someone came in and Photochopped out an existing door, making Marie look like the best mime ever because she was shaking her fist at nothing and stopped dead as if her face had run into an invisible door.

"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME THIS GROUND WAS SMOOSHY! Stupid'myhandsaretiedyou'llhavetodoityourself'lazybum!"

"Marie? Where did you come from?" Yu supposed it wasn't all that surprising. As part of Izanami and patron deity of Inaba, she probably had a few tricks up her sleeve besides controlling the weather.

"It's Emmy-chan! Are you mad we didn't invite you to the beach?" Somehow, Yu didn't think Teddie had the right idea.

Marie managed to take a few shaky steps towards them and pointed accusingly at the Shadow Operatives. "You. Inaba. NOW. **GO ****FIX IT!**"

Goddess or not, Yu was the only person she'd listen to. "Hey, calm down. Are you here on behalf of the Velvet Room?"

"What Velvet Room?" Marie had given up on walking on the sand and plopped herself down, wiggling her butt to try to get settled. "Margaret says Nose just picked up and moved and forgot about them or something. He's vanished. You aren't getting any help at all."

This was worrying. Sure, Yu hadn't seen Igor himself for quite a while, but he assumed the bulbous man of riddles was still overseeing things during the tournament. Where would he go, and why would he leave the attendants behind – especially if there was something the Persona-users had to do? There were two murderous rogue Persona-users on the loose, **another** murder mystery where the victim had disappeared, and they were down a whole team.

"We can't keep going back to Inaba," Yukari tried explaining, "We have lives. And we don't even have Personas, anyway, so what good would we be in a fight? Inaba has its own Persona-users. Maybe we're just...done."

But Marie wasn't satisfied with that answer as she (attempted to) leap to her feet. "Urgh...**LOOK**," Her left eye turned green and menacing.

Fuuka shrieked, and Junpei actually tried to hide behind her. "WHOA, that's a crazy eye! We've got crazy eye sighting!"

"**I'm getting tired of towers with your name on it showing up ****where they're not wanted!****There's only room for one grumpy goddess in Inaba, and we're not putting out a personal ad for another one! ****This is your tower in my town, so come clean it up!"**

This set the Shadow Operatives off like a box of fireworks. Akihiko slapped himself in the face so hard they heard it, and Mitsuru began shaking, her hand covering her mouth like she was going to vomit.

"What have we done?" she whispered.

"We have failed our leader," Aigis said mournfully.

Junpei came out of hiding. "Okay, which one of you wished for death, huh? WHO DID IT?"

"Theo and Liz say this is the same tower," Marie pointed at the Operatives, "which means it's up to the same people to take it down again."

"How the hell do you suggest we do that with no Personas?" asked Akihiko. He had positioned himself in front of Mitsuru the moment Marie started yelling.

Eye reduced to normal, Marie scoffed. "Your Personas are _**there**_. You want them back, just go and get them already! Jeez! I don't get what the problem is. You did this once before, right? Just do the same thing this time!"

"No, you don't understand. That's not possible," Ken explained to her. His voice was shaking. "The only way to stop Nyx from coming...to seal her away...was…"

_**Oh**_. So that's what had happened to their leader. The fact that he wasn't here was a good indication that he'd died, but to think that he did so in order to ensure his team's success..._Thanks for setting the bar impossibly high! _

Could he have done that? If it had come down to exchanging one life for many, if Izanami had demanded Yu give up his life to save Inaba from destruction...could he really have done the same? And would his team have let him? The answer to that was simple; a resounding no, meaning Makoto Yuki had not told the others about what would happen. Did HE know what was going to happen?

"Wait just a minute here!" Labrys had been watching the Operatives and squinting as if she was trying hard to remember something. "Elizabeth-san told me somethin'. Your friend's a lock, right? To keep some demon dog thing from gettin' to its master? Well, she's been goin' up there every now and then to shoo it off, and it's workin', so everything should be fine, right?"

"Not if the door opens from the other side," replied Marie. "Something broke the lock."

The girls began crying. "Does this mean," Fuuka struggled to say, "that Makoto-kun is...disappointed in us?"

"Everything he did...was for nothing," Yukari sobbed, "because we're idiots!"

Marie was not moved. "Great, we're all on the same page. Can we get going already?"

"Marie," Yu tried to reason with her, "Nanako is sleeping, and I'd rather not wake her up just to drag her home. She'd think it was her fault." She had to at least care for Nanako, even as a means to get to Yu.

"You don't have to. I did a thing. You guys have a TV, right?"

"We don't go through a TV to get to Tartarus," said Ken.

"This isn't Junes, either," Yosuke added.

"Liz told me this would work now," explained Marie," and **only** now, because the two goddesses are clashing or something."

"Senpai's got TVs big enough to fit all of us at the same time," said Junpei.

"Don't you have to be a Persona-user to go into the TV, though?" Yukari looked worried.

"You **are** Persona-users. You may have lost them for the time being, but if what Marie says is true, then you can still get them back. And we know how to get Personas." If this meant keeping Nanako safe, Yu would do it. If it dispersed the Doom Cloud hovering over Inaba, the Team would do it. Looking at the Operatives as a wave of determination swept over them, he felt sure that they wouldn't want their Wild Card's sacrifice to be in vain. They'd do it.

"Mitsuru?" Akihiko turned to Mitsuru and hesitantly coaxed her.

Mitsuru shrunk back a little when she realized that all eyes were on her, but she was finally standing straight. She nodded.

"All right, everybody," Yu said, "It's time for the TV Hour."

* * *

\- ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp -

Welcome to the Babe Hunt Semifinals! The score is still tied, 0-0.

Margaret not only expressly calls Yu a "man-whore" in the animation, she says this directly to Nanako – who cheerfully repeats it after she visits the fortune-telling booth at the Yasogami Culture Festival.

Obligatory "melons" joke acknowledged.

If you "marry" Rise in Persona Q, she comments on the doctored wedding photo with the copyright-free name of a popular graphics program.

In Persona 3's "Journey", you find out that Tartarus is a means for Ryoji to get to the moon to summon Nyx. But in "The Answer" you find out that MC/FeMC has become a padlock not to hold Nyx back, but to separate her from Erebus. Imagine Makoto being so disappointed in and sad for his friends that he can't do his job properly. Now, Elizabeth has been defeating Erebus all this time, but if the door to Nyx was opened, there would be nothing she could do.

(Now, for a laugh, imagine Izanami getting pissed off at another goddess trying to be her roommate: "Um, excuse me, Iwatodai is THAT way!

...bitch.)


End file.
